Methods of managing terminal performed in base station and terminal

ABSTRACT

Provided are methods of managing a terminal in a heterogeneous network (HetNet) environment. Between the methods, a method of managing a terminal performed in a base station includes determining whether or not a measurement change request event has occurred, and when a measurement change request event has occurred, transmitting a control message for instructing a change of a measurement operation to the terminal. Accordingly, it is possible to improve a measurement operation and discontinuous reception (DRX) operation control procedure necessary for connection control between one or more base stations and a terminal in a HetNet environment, and thereby performance of a system can be improved.

CLAIM FOR PRIORITY

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/782,194, filed on Mar. 1, 2013, which claims priority to KoreanPatent Application No. 10-2012-0021843 filed on Mar. 2, 2012, No.10-2012-0027389 filed on Mar. 16, 2012, No. 10-2012-0029384 filed onMar. 22, 2012, No. 10-2012-0099251 filed on Sep. 7, 2012, No.10-2012-0102889 filed on Sep. 17, 2012, and No. 10-2013-0020910 filed onFeb. 27, 2013 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), theentire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

Example embodiments of the present invention relate in general totechnology for a packet-based mobile communication system, and moreparticularly, to methods of managing a terminal performed in a basestation and the terminal to support mobility management and low-poweroperation of the terminal in a heterogeneous network (HetNet)environment.

2. Related Art

In a packet-based cellular mobile communication system, mobilitymanagement is intended to maintain continuity of a connection of a radiobearer (RB), which is a logical channel established between a basestation and a terminal.

A general mobility management method uses a backward handover procedurein which a terminal establishes a connection for a control channelthrough preliminary information exchange between a source base stationfrom which the terminal has originally received service and a targetbase station that will provide the service through a new connectionaccording to movement of the terminal, accesses the target base stationto set a connection for a data channel, and then closes a connectionwith the source base station.

In particular, in a HetNet environment in which various types of basestations, cells or transmission points such as macro base stations,micro or pico base stations, home base stations, closed subscriber group(CSG) cells or remote radio heads (RRHs) coexist, ping-pong handoverfrequently occurs between adjacent base stations/cells, and load of asystem increases. Also, the quality of a radio channel deteriorates dueto interference at a cell boundary, and radio link failure (RLF) occursdue to the deterioration, so that the overall performance of a mobilecommunication system is hindered.

To improve performance of a mobile communication system, there is anecessity for a method capable of reducing signaling overhead caused bymessage transmission or state switching (e.g., switches between aconnected state and an idle state) of terminals, which are smart phonesintermittently generating a small amount of data such as instant message(IM) traffic, machine type communication (MTC) terminals generatingtraffic such as smart metering data, or terminals generating a smallamount of data at long intervals, and minimizing power consumption ofthe terminals.

Terminals supporting a device-to-device (D2D) communication function arerequired to perform a measurement for checking whether or not there areadjacent terminals and whether or not it is possible to communicate, andthus it is necessary to improve a measurement procedure such asmeasurement setup, measurement execution, and measurement reporting forD2D communication, and a method and a control procedure for measurementtriggering.

Meanwhile, to improve performance of a terminal located at a cellboundary in a packet-based cellular mobile communication system, acoordinated multipoint transmission and reception (CoMP) function inwhich a plurality of base stations, cells or transmission nodes locatedat geographically the same point or different points cooperate toprovide service is taken into consideration. CoMP may be classified as aCoMP function provided by one or more micro base stations in a macrobase station having a relatively large arbitrary service area, a CoMPfunction provided by two or more macro base stations, a CoMP functionprovided by two or more macro base stations and micro base stationsbelonging to the macro base stations, and so on.

In addition, CoMP functions may be classified into a joint processing(JP) scheme in which a plurality of transmission nodes transmit the samepacket information all together, and a coordinatedscheduling/beamforming (CS/CB) scheme in which a plurality oftransmission nodes cooperate to support minimization of interference atone transmission node.

According to the JP scheme, in general, a plurality of transmissionnodes transmit the same information using the same radio resources(which means that radio resources consisting of the same frequency bandand transmission time are allocated to a CoMP-target terminal) and thesame modulation and coding scheme (MCS).

The CS/CB scheme is a control method in which a plurality oftransmission nodes share radio resources and information for MCS totransmit data to an arbitrary terminal using optimal radio resources andMCS, and exchange related information (e.g., the magnitude of aninterference signal, the magnitudes of a signal from a serving cell anda signal of an adjacent cell, optimal transmission and codinginformation such as a pre-coding matrix indicator (PMI) in considerationof the adjacent cell) so that provision of service and allocation ofradio resources can be made through interference control.

The JP scheme may be classified into a joint transmission (JT) scheme inview of a downlink from a base station to a terminal, and a jointreception (JR) scheme in view of an uplink from a terminal to a basestation. Also, the JP scheme may include a dynamic cell selection (DCS)method or a dynamic point selection (DPS) method of dynamicallyselecting transmission nodes participating in CoMP.

The DCS/DPS method is intended to select an optimal point (or cell) atan arbitrary transmission time from among a plurality of cells or pointsset to participate in CoMP in consideration of radio channel quality,the load statuses of base stations, transmission/reception power and aninterference state between a terminal and the base stations, etc.,thereby improving performance.

In order to improve performance of a mobile communication system in aHetNet environment supporting a CoMP function in which a plurality ofbase stations cooperate to provide service as described above and acarrier aggregation (CA) function, it is necessary to improve ameasurement operation required for connection control between one ormore base stations and a terminal, and a discontinuous reception (DRX)operation control procedure. In addition, to improve the performance ofthe system, it is necessary to improve a mobility control procedure of aterminal, a measurement method for an MTC terminal, a terminalgenerating traffic having a variety of profiles, and a terminalsupporting the D2D communication function, and a control procedure forminimizing power consumption of a terminal.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, example embodiments of the present invention are providedto substantially obviate one or more problems due to limitations anddisadvantages of the related art.

Example embodiments of the present invention provide a method ofmanaging a terminal in a heterogeneous network (HetNet) environmentcapable of improving performance of a mobile communication system,efficiently controlling interference, ensuring continuity of service,and reducing power consumption of a terminal.

In some example embodiments, a method of managing a terminal in a HetNetenvironment is a method of managing a terminal performed in a basestation, the method including: determining whether or not to controlmeasurement of the terminal; generating measurement information formeasurement of the terminal on the basis of the determination of whetheror not to control measurement; and providing the generated measurementinformation to the terminal using a control message.

Here, determining whether or not to control measurement of the terminalmay include determining which one among a connection state, an idlestate and a limited connection state the terminal is placed in,determining whether or not a carrier aggregation (CA) service isprovided to the terminal, determining information or request contentreceived from the terminal, determining a mobility state of theterminal, or determining a type of the terminal as a condition fordetermining whether or not to control measurement of the terminal.

Here, generating the measurement information for measurement of theterminal may include generating the measurement information causing atleast one of channel state information (CSI) measurement, radio resourcemanagement (RRM) measurement, measurement for discovering adevice-to-device (D2D) terminal, and measurement for D2D communicationto be performed.

Here, generating the measurement information for measurement of theterminal may include setting CSI measurement, RRM measurement,measurement for discovering a D2D terminal, and measurement for D2Dcommunication differently according to frequency, or may set themeasurement information differently according to cell.

Here, generating the measurement information for measurement of theterminal may include generating at least one piece of measurementinformation among a measurement-target device, a measurement-targetparameter, a measurement period, a measurement reporting period, andconditions for entering and releasing a measurement event.

Here, generating the measurement information for measurement of theterminal may include generating the measurement information byassociating a measurement reporting period of the terminal with adiscontinuous reception (DRX) operation period of the terminal.

Here, determining whether or not to control measurement may includedetermining whether or not at least one condition for changing operationof the terminal is satisfied among a case in which there is no dataexchange with the terminal for a predetermined first time, a case inwhich no measurement-related event occurs for a predetermined secondtime, a case in which a variance of a measurement reporting value for apredetermined third time is in a predetermined range, a case in which itis determined that mobility management of the terminal is not necessary,a case in which the terminal requests a change according to a manualsetting by a user, and a case in which a measurement reporting valueprovided by the terminal satisfies a predefined reference value.

Here, generating the measurement information may include, when at leastone condition for changing operation of the terminal is satisfied,generating the measurement information for instructing the terminal toperform at least one of a measurement and measurement reportingoperation switch, a change of measurement and measurement reportingparameters, a DRX operation switch, and a change of a DRX operationparameter.

Here, determining whether or not to control measurement of the terminalmay include receiving operation level information defining operation ofthe terminal from the terminal. Also, generating the measurementinformation may include setting a parameter for at least one of ameasurement operation and a DRX operation of the terminal on the basisof the received operation level information on the terminal.

Here, the operation level information on the terminal may indicate atleast one of a first measurement mode in which the terminal performsmeasurement and measurement reporting operations according to a setmeasurement parameter, a second measurement mode in which the terminalperforms minimum measurement and measurement reporting operations whilesatisfying the lowest service quality of a set radio bearer (RB), athird measurement mode in which the terminal selectively performs ameasurement operation, a first DRX mode in which the terminal performsno DRX operation, a second DRX mode in which the terminal performs a DRXoperation according to a set DRX parameter, and a third DRX mode inwhich the terminal performs a DRX operation to minimize powerconsumption of the terminal.

In other example embodiments, a method of managing a terminal in aHetNet environment is a method of managing a terminal performed in theterminal, the method including: determining whether or not a measurementchange request event has occurred; and when a measurement change requestevent has occurred, transmitting a message for requesting a change of ameasurement operation to a base station.

Here, determining whether or not a measurement change request eventoccurs may include determining that a measurement change request eventhas occurred when at least one case occurs among a case in which a userof the terminal has changed a setting, a case in which a set timer hasbeen expired, and a case in which an event based on mobility stateestimation (MSE) has occurred.

Here, it may be determined that the event based on MSE has occurred whenan intensity of a signal transmitted from the base station is lower thana predetermined threshold value, or when the terminal is determined tohave moved out of a specific area on the basis of location informationon the terminal.

Here, transmitting the message for requesting a change of a measurementoperation to the base station may include transmitting the requestmessage for requesting stop of measurement and measurement reporting,restart of measurement and measurement reporting, or a change of ameasurement parameter.

Here, transmitting the message for requesting a change of a measurementoperation to the base station may include transmitting operation levelinformation defining operation of the terminal to the base station.

Here, the operation level information may be information defining anoperation level of measurement and measurement reporting of theterminal, or a DRX operation level of the terminal.

Here, the operation level information on measurement and measurementreporting of the terminal may include at least one piece of informationamong measurement operation activation/deactivation information,threshold values for conditions for entering and releasing a measurementevent, a threshold value of a timer for measurement management, ameasurement event-triggering threshold value, an adjustment value foradjusting measurement event triggering, a timer value for triggeringexecution of measurement or measurement reporting, a measurement period,a measurement reporting period, a measurement-target frequency, and atype of a measurement-target cell.

Here, the information defining the DRX operation level of the terminalmay include at least one piece of information among a DRX period, asection for monitoring control information, a timer for a DRX operation,and activation/deactivation information on the DRX operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Example embodiments of the present invention will become more apparentby describing in detail example embodiments of the present inventionwith reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a heterogeneousnetwork (HetNet) to which a method of managing a terminal according toexample embodiments of the present invention is applied;

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing another example of a HetNet towhich a method of managing a terminal according to example embodimentsof the present invention is applied;

FIG. 3 is a message sequence diagram illustrating a measurementoperation determination procedure of a terminal in a method of managinga terminal according to example embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a message sequence diagram illustrating a discontinuousreception (DRX) operation determination procedure of a terminal in amethod of managing a terminal according to example embodiments of thepresent invention;

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a network environment towhich a method of managing a terminal according to example embodimentsof the present invention is applied;

FIG. 6 is a message sequence diagram illustrating an access point (AP)search procedure in a method of managing a terminal according to exampleembodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a message sequence diagram illustrating a handover procedurein a method of managing a terminal according to example embodiments ofpresent invention when a terminal is in a log-in state;

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram showing a constitution example of aHetNet including a cloud base station to which a method of managing aterminal according to example embodiments of the present invention isapplied; and

FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram illustrating mobility management of aterminal in consideration of a small cell in a HetNet environment in amethod of managing a terminal according to example embodiments of thepresent invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

Example embodiments of the present invention are described below insufficient detail to enable those of ordinary skill in the art to embodyand practice the present invention. It is important to understand thatthe present invention may be embodied in many alternate forms and shouldnot be construed as limited to the example embodiments set forth herein.

Accordingly, while the invention can be modified in various ways andtake on various alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof areshown in the drawings and described in detail below as examples. Thereis no intent to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed.On the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications,equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of theappended claims. Elements of the example embodiments are consistentlydenoted by the same reference numerals throughout the drawings anddetailed description.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, A, B, etc.may be used herein in reference to elements of the invention, suchelements should not be construed as limited by these terms. For example,a first element could be termed a second element, and a second elementcould be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of thepresent invention. Herein, the term “and/or” includes any and allcombinations of one or more referents.

It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being“connected” or “coupled” to another element, it can be directlyconnected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may bepresent. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directlyconnected” or “directly coupled” to another element, there are nointervening elements. Other words used to describe relationships betweenelements should be interpreted in a like fashion (i.e., “between” versus“directly between,” “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent,” etc.).

The terminology used herein to describe embodiments of the invention isnot intended to limit the scope of the invention. The articles “a,”“an,” and “the” are singular in that they have a single referent,however the use of the singular form in the present document should notpreclude the presence of more than one referent. In other words,elements of the invention referred to in the singular may number one ormore, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be furtherunderstood that the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” and/or“including,” when used herein, specify the presence of stated features,items, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do notpreclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, items,steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientificterms) used herein are to be interpreted as is customary in the art towhich this invention belongs. It will be further understood that termsin common usage should also be interpreted as is customary in therelevant art and not in an idealized or overly formal sense unlessexpressly so defined herein.

Hereinafter, example embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed in detail with reference to the appended drawings. To aid inunderstanding the present invention, like numbers refer to like elementsthroughout the description of the drawings, and the description of thesame component will not be reiterated.

In example embodiments of the present invention that will be describedbelow, a node or a point may denote one of a base station, a macro basestation, a micro base station, a NodeB, an evolved Node-B (eNodeB), acell, a femto cell, a femto base station, a home cell, a home (e)NB, aremote wireless node, a remote radio head (RRH), a closed subscribergroup (CSG) cell, and a relay in a mobile communication system. Evenwhen no additional description is made, in a coordinated multipointtransmission and reception (CoMP) operation according to exampleembodiments of the present invention, each node or point denotes atransmission node or a transmission point from the viewpoint of adownlink (i.e., a terminal receives a signal), and denotes a receptionnode or a reception point from the viewpoint of an uplink (i.e., aterminal transmits a signal).

A method of managing a terminal in a heterogeneous network (HetNet)environment according to example embodiments of the present inventionprovides a CoMP function, in which a plurality of base stations presentat geographically adjacent locations or different locations cooperate toprovide service, and service to various types of terminals such as amachine type communication (MTC) terminal or a smart phone in a HetNetenvironment in which a macro base station and various types of microbase stations coexist, provides a measurement opportunity for a servingbase station, an adjacent base station or surrounding terminal devicesin an environment supporting direct communication between the terminals,and provides a parameter for managing mobility of a terminal andsupporting a low-power consumption operation, thereby increasing atransmission rate of a mobile communication system, improvinginterference control or interference avoidance performance, ensuringcontinuity of the service, and reducing power consumption of a terminal.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a HetNet to which amethod of managing a terminal according to example embodiments of thepresent invention is applied, and illustrates a constitution of anintra-evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) node B(eNB) environment and a service scenario of a terminal in a HetNetenvironment.

Referring to FIG. 1, a HetNet may include a macro base station (or eNB)110, a plurality of micro base stations 120, and a plurality of remotewireless nodes 130, and may provide service to terminals, such as userterminals 151, 153, 155 and 157 and MTC terminals 161, 163 and 165,supporting a variety of functions.

In a service area of the macro base station 110, one or more micro basestations 120 and one or more remote wireless nodes 130 may be present.According to a constitution of a network, the one or more micro basestations 120 or the one or more remote wireless nodes 130 may beconfigured to have the same cell identifier (ID) as the macro basestation 110, or configured to operate using respective cell IDsdifferent from the cell ID of the macro base station 110.

Even when at least one micro base station 120 or at least one remotewireless node 130 is configured to have the same cell ID as the macrobase station 110, it is necessary to identify the micro base station 120or the remote wireless node 130 for a dynamic cell selection(DCS)/dynamic point selection (DPS) operation, interference controlbetween the remote wireless nodes 130, or configuration anddistinguishment of feedback information from a terminal. Thus,additional IDs may be applied to the micro base stations 120 or theremote wireless nodes 130, or reference symbol (RS) patterns fordistinguishment between the micro base station 120 and the remotewireless node 130, patterns for a pilot symbol, or scramble signalpatterns may be applied. For example, different patterns may be appliedto the micro base stations 120 or the remote wireless nodes 130 usingtransmission locations of the corresponding symbols or signals, atransmission frequency band, a transmission interval or period, atransmission repetition period, a masking signal sequence, or so on.

In the HetNet environment in which the macro base station 110, the microbase stations 120 and the remote wireless nodes 130 coexist, terminalsmay exchange packet information with one point, or exchange data with aplurality of points. Here, a point denotes one of the macro base station110, the micro base stations 120 and the remote wireless nodes 130, andmay operate as a transmission point, a reception point, a transmissionand reception point, etc. according to connection management and aparameter setting for forwarding packet information.

For example, there may be the user terminal 151 that establishes alogical connection (e.g., a radio resource control (RRC) connection of aLong Term Evolution (LTE) system) with the macro base station 110 andexchanges packet information in the HetNet environment. In addition,there may be the user terminal 155 that establishes a connection withthe macro base station 110 and exchanges packet information via a remotewireless node 130. Furthermore, there may be the user terminal 153 thattransmits or receives packet information via two points consisting ofthe macro base station 110 and a micro base station 120 using the CoMPfunction, and the user terminal 157 that transmits or receives packetinformation via two micro base stations 120 or two remote wireless nodes130.

In the intra-eNB environment as shown in FIG. 1, a user terminalbasically performs control and management for connection setup with themacro base station 110 or a primary transmission node having a layer 3function (e.g., the RRC layer of the LTE system) that handles controlover a connection of a radio bearer (RB) regardless of the locations ornumber of points transmitting or receiving packet information.

Meanwhile, the user terminal 153 may wirelessly transmit and receivedata directly to and from the adjacent user terminal 157 using adevice-to-device (D2D) communication function, and receive controlinformation related to D2D communication from the macro base station 110or the micro base station 120 in case of necessity. Here, the controlinformation related to D2D communication may include, for example,information on radio resources (radio subframe configurationinformation, modulation and coding scheme (MCS) information, informationon an allocated frequency band and transmission timing, and so on) usedfor D2D communication, information for discovering an adjacent terminal(discover channel information), setup information and a parameter formeasuring an adjacent terminal, and so on.

The MTC terminal 163 that is installed in a car or supports a mobilityfunction may receive service including control of the mobility function,execution of measurement, setup of a parameter for a control function,and data transmission via a remote wireless node 130 or the macro basestation 110. Here, the MTC terminal 161 may be capable of directcommunication with the user terminal 151 as well as the macro basestation 110 using the D2D communication function. Such D2D communicationbetween the MTC terminal 161 and the user terminal 151 may be limitedlyperformed only when a user sets D2D communication in advance.

The MTC terminal 165 may be configured to access the adjacent remotewireless node 130 rather than the macro base station 110 so as to reducepower consumption of the terminal. Also, the MTC terminal 165 may beconfigured to receive service via the adjacent user terminals 153 and155 using the D2D communication function or receive service by directlyaccessing the macro base station 110 when it is not possible to receiveservice via the adjacent remote wireless node 130 because ofdeactivation or disabling of the remote wireless node 130, barring, orother reasons.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing another example of a HetNet towhich a method of managing a terminal according to example embodimentsof the present invention is applied, and illustrates a constitution ofan inter-eNB environment and a service scenario of a terminal in aHetNet environment.

Referring to FIG. 2, a HetNet may include a plurality of macro basestations (or eNBs) 210 and 220, a plurality of micro base stations 231and 233, and a plurality of remote wireless nodes 241 and 243, and mayprovide service to terminals, such as user terminals 251 to 256 and MTCterminals 261 and 262, supporting a variety of functions.

In the inter-eNB environment shown in FIG. 2, the respective macro basestations 210 and 220 perform connection control on the user terminals251 to 256 and the MTC terminals 261 and 262 belonging to the serviceareas of the respective macro base stations 210 and 220.

However, when the CoMP function is supported for the user terminal 251located at a boundary point between the service areas of the respectivemacro base stations 210 and 220, the user terminal 254 located at aboundary point between points such as micro base stations or remotewireless nodes managed by the respective macro base stations 210 and220, or the user terminals 252, 253 and 255 present at boundary pointsbetween points managed by the respective macro base stations 210 and 220and another eNB, the two macro base stations 210 and 220 may exchangecontrol information to determine a macro base station that willprimarily perform connection control together with points to participatein a CoMP operation.

The determined primary macro base station (primary eNB) may set acontrol parameter, set or allocate a radio control channel fortransmitting control signaling information such as control informationand feedback information, and perform connection control such asconnection establishment/maintenance/change of an RB for datatransmission, a signaling RB for transmitting signaling information, orso on. Also, the primary macro base station primarily determines andperforms procedures such as measurement and reporting of points for theCoMP operation, resource allocation and scheduling (including generationand transmission of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)information, configuration of feedback information, and so on), andcontrol of an RB connection.

Meanwhile, the MTC terminal 261 that is located at a boundary pointbetween the service areas of the two macro base stations 210 and 220 andhas the mobility function or is installed in a car (including a case ofonly having an interface for connecting a terminal) may receivenecessary service using the two macro base stations 210 and 220 or theadjacent micro base station 233 on the basis of the user terminal 251,or exchange data with the adjacent user terminal 251 through a radiochannel using the D2D communication function.

The MTC terminal 262 located at a boundary point between points such asthe micro base stations 231 and 233 or remote wireless nodes managed bythe respective macro base stations 210 and 220 may access the closermacro base station 210 among the adjacent micro base stations (or remotewireless nodes) 231 and 233 and the two macro base stations 210 and 220on the basis of the user terminal 254 and exchange data. Alternatively,the MTC terminal 262 may exchange data with the adjacent user terminal252 through a radio channel using the D2D communication functionaccording to a setting of the network or the terminal.

When the HetNet environment described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG.2 is configured as a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)-basedmobile communication system, a macro base station denotes an (e)NB or amacro (e)NB, and a remote wireless node may denote a wirelesstransmission node having only some functions of radio protocol layer 3(e.g., the RRC layer of an LTE system), such as a macro or micro basestation, and radio protocol layer 2 (e.g., the radio link control(RLC)/media access control (MAC) layer of an LTE system), or havingfunctions of a radio frequency (RF) module including an antenna such asan RRH or some functions of a baseband region.

A micro base station shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 may denote a micro cellor a pico cell that has radio protocol functions including the sameradio resource allocation function as an (e)NB or a macro base stationand a function of the RRC layer and the RLC/MAC layer for managingconnection control for an RB set between a base station and a terminal,but has a small service area due to relatively low transmission power,or denote a femto cell, a home cell (home (e)NB), or a CSG cell.

In a HetNet environment in which various types of base stations, such asa macro base station, a micro base station, a remote wireless node, ahome base station and a CSG cell, and a variety of terminals, such as anMTC terminal, a smart phone, and a general cellular phone other than asmart phone, coexist, a base station that will primarily performconnection control, such as measurement/measurement reporting aboutwhether or not a CoMP function is supported under management of thenetwork, whether or not the D2D communication function is supported, thetype of service that is being provided, or a terminal, parameter setupfor a discontinuous reception (DRX) operation, and so on.

The determined primary base station performs connection control such asconnection establishment/maintenance/change of an RB for datatransmission necessary for providing service, a signaling RB fortransmitting signaling information, or so on.

In addition, the primary base station allocates a physical controlchannel for transmitting control signaling information (resourceallocation information for scheduling, feedback information, and so on),and may perform a function of setting various measurement functions,such as measurement for reporting a channel quality indication (CQI) fordetermining an MCS level according to a radio channel state, measurementof a serving cell and adjacent cells for supporting the mobilityfunction, measurement for searching for or discovering an adjacentterminal (e.g., a user terminal or an MTC terminal) for supporting theD2D communication function, etc. according to frequency or cell.

Furthermore, the primary base station may control only some of thevarious measurement functions to be activated or enabled, or ameasurement function to be deactivated or disabled. A setting offunctions of such measurement operations (execution of measurement andmeasurement reporting) and the DRX operation may be determined accordingto information acquired by the base station and a mechanism, ordetermined by the primary base station with reference to a request of aterminal (information bits indicating a value and a range of a componentparameter, activation/deactivation of a function, or a combination offunctions).

As mentioned above, functions of a measurement operation may beclassified as described below.

Channel state information (CSI) measurement: As measurement for CQIreporting, this is a measurement and measurement reporting operation forensuring transmission reliability in a wireless section, such as an MCSlevel and a retransmission scheme of a hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ), etc., upon data transmission.

Radio resource management (RRM) measurement: this is a measurement andmeasurement reporting function for supporting the mobility function, andin RRM measurement, a measurement and measurement reporting operation isperformed on a serving cell and adjacent cells (having the samefrequency as the serving cell or a different frequency than the servingcell), events for measurement of a serving cell, an adjacent cell havingthe same frequency, an adjacent cell having a different frequency, and adifferent type of base station may be separately set, and entry/releaseof each event may be set and controlled using a reference value (orthreshold value) for a measurement parameter and reference timerinformation.

D2D discovery measurement: As measurement for discovering an adjacentterminal to support the D2D communication function, this is ameasurement and measurement reporting operation performed to checkwhether or not a terminal is present in a radio channel environmentregardless of whether or not information received from a base station orlocation information is used.

D2D communication measurement: this is a measurement and measurementreporting operation for estimating the quality of a radio channelbetween terminals to exchange actual data between the terminals usingthe D2D communication function, and for ensuring transmissionreliability in a wireless section, such as an MCS level and aretransmission scheme of a HARQ, etc., on the basis of radio channelquality estimated upon data transmission.

When a terminal initially accesses a mobile communication network, orbefore the terminal closes access to the network, the network maylimitedly set a type of a base station (a macro base station, a microbase station, a remote wireless node, a CSG cell, a home base station,and so on) which the terminal will primarily access in consideration ofa capability of the terminal using control signaling informationtransmitted by the base station or initial (or basic) setup informationon the terminal.

According to a state of a terminal among a connected state in which theterminal is establishing/maintaining a logical connection with anarbitrary base station for service or control signaling, an idle statein which no logical connection has been established between the terminaland a base station, and a state in which the terminal has no logicalconnection with a base station for service or control signaling but ismaintaining a limited connection (e.g., a connection that is only validin a situation satisfying limited conditions or for an arbitrary timesection (or period)), respective measurement operations such as theabove-described CSI measurement, RRM measurement, D2D discoverymeasurement, and D2D communication measurement may be selectively set,or some of the measurement operations may be set as a combination.

When a base station supports a carrier aggregation (CA) function using aplurality of frequencies, a measurement operation of a terminal may beset differently according to each of the frequencies. In other words,whether to activate or deactivate each measurement operation to beperformed by the terminal, and a setting of a measurement parameter mayvary according to frequency.

For example, when a macro base stations uses frequencies f1, f2 and f3and a micro base stations uses frequencies f1 and f3 in a HetNetenvironment, a terminal supporting the CA or CoMP function may receiveservice from the macro base station and (or) the micro base stationusing the CA function or the CoMP function based on the frequencies f1and f3. At this time, for CA, the terminal that receives service fromthe macro base station (or the micro base station) using the CA functionin the connected state may perform a measurement operation on afrequency (e.g., f1) of the primary base station (primary cell (Pcell))and a frequency (e.g., f2 or f3) of a secondary base station (secondarycell (Scell)).

Meanwhile, a primary base station of a terminal may separately set a CSImeasurement operation for scheduling resource allocation and an RRMmeasurement operation for mobility management. For example, RRMmeasurement and CSI measurement may be set to be performed together on afrequency of the primary base station, and only CSI measurement may beset to be performed on a frequency of a secondary base station.

In case of need or according to a request of a terminal, a primary basestation may control the RRM or CSI measurement operation to be placed inan activation or deactivation mode. For example, RRM measurement of afrequency of a primary base station may be activated to be performed,and CSI measurement of the frequency of the primary base station or afrequency of a secondary base station may be deactivated to be stopped.

Using a request of a terminal, information received from the terminal,etc., a base station may control RRM measurement of a frequency of aprimary base station to be stopped (deactivated) in case of need. Inparticular, when a terminal accesses a micro base station and receivesservice, a base station reduces as many measurement operations of theterminal for mobility management as possible by deactivating RRMmeasurement and only activating CSI measurement using mobility stateestimation (MSE) information on the terminal or according to a request(or a manual setting by a user) from a terminal determined to havealmost no mobility, and thereby may control power consumption of theterminal to be reduced. Such a method of controlling the respective CSI,RRM, D2D discovery and D2D communication measurement operations to beactivated or deactivated according to MSE information on a terminal maybe applied regardless of a type of a base station that the terminal hasaccessed, and the respective measurement operations may be controlledaccording to a request of the terminal or a determination of the basestation.

In particular, a fixed MTC device (e.g., an MTC device for metering)having no mobility may be basically controlled to deactivate the RRMmeasurement operation and operate. Also, a fixed MTC device may beconfigured to deactivate CSI measurement as well and performtransmission using a predetermined MCS.

For example, when a fixed MTC device is installed or registered with anetwork, operations and procedures for measurement or reporting may beselectively deactivated among the RRM and CSI measurement operations andreport operation procedures using a control message (e.g., an RRCmessage or a MAC message).

Meanwhile, a terminal that maintains a logical connection (e.g., an RRCconnection) for service or control signaling between the terminal and abase station performs a measurement on a serving base station and anadjacent base station (which uses the same frequency as the serving basestation or a frequency adjacent to that of the serving base station) tosupport the mobility function. After performing the measurementaccording to a measurement target (e.g., a frequency or a measurementsignal) set through a control message by the base station and ameasurement report parameter, the terminal reports the measurementresults to the base station. Here, the measurement signal may be a pilotsymbol or a reference signal (RS) that is periodically transmitted on aphysical channel. For example, the measurement signal may be configuredas a cell-specific RS (CRS), a CSI-RS, an RRH-RS (RS defined to identifyan RRH), a user equipment (UE)-specific RS (RS defined to identify aterminal), and so on, and may be defined by the frequency of occurrenceon a time axis (e.g., a subframe interval and the number of transmissionsubframes), the position of occurrence on a frequency axis (e.g., asubcarrier interval and the number of transmission subcarriers), thenumber of RS symbols, etc. in consideration of the number of antennas.

A base station notifies a terminal of a measurement-target base station(or measurement-target frequency), a measurement-target parameter, ameasurement period, a measurement reporting period, and parameters ofconditions for entering and releasing a measurement event using acontrol message, and the terminal performs measurement according to themeasurement-related parameters provided by the base station, and reportsthe measurement results.

To set a parameter for a measurement operation of a terminal, a basestation may display a measurement-target base station using a basestation ID, and a measurement-target frequency using a frequency index(or ID) defined in a system. The results measured by the terminal may beexpressed as RS received power (RSRP), RS received quality (RSRQ), areceived signal strength indicator (RSSI), CSI field information, CQIfield information, or so on.

Also, to set conditions for entering and releasing a measurement event,a base station may use a reference value for a measurement target, athreshold value or offset value, a threshold value of at least one timerfor measurement management, a measurement event-triggering thresholdvalue or an adjustment value related to measurement event triggering, atimer value for triggering execution of measurement or measurementreporting, etc. according to each measurement operation.

When measurement and measurement reporting are periodic, a base stationmay set a measurement period and a measurement reporting period in unitsof subframes, radio frames, milliseconds (ms), or seconds (sec). Here,the base station may improve performance of the DRX operation byaligning the measurement reporting period and a multiple of a DRXoperation period with each other. When a condition for entering and/orreleasing a measurement event for mobility management is satisfied, themeasurement period and the measurement reporting period may be set to beaperiodic regardless of a set measurement period or measurementreporting period, so that measurement and/or measurement reporting isperformed when an event occurs.

For efficiency of operation, a base station may close an RRC connectionof a terminal in an RRC connection state in which the DRX operation anda measurement operation for measurement and measurement reporting arenecessary, and control the terminal to switch to the idle state whenthere is no data exchange between the base station and the terminal fora predetermined time or the base station determines that the RRCconnection is not necessary. As mentioned above, a base station mayselectively deactivate respective measurement operations and the DRXoperation performed by a terminal without switching the terminal to theidle state using a request from the terminal or a measurement reportprovided by the terminal, or may change measurement and DRX operationlevels or related parameters, thereby controlling the terminal to reducepower consumption. Such a control may be determined by the base stationin consideration of a request from the terminal (or a manual setting bya user), information collected from the terminal, a load status of thebase station, or so on.

For example, to avoid overload of a signaling procedure required for aterminal having switched from the connected state to the idle state toswitch from the idle state to the RRC connection state due to generationof new data, an update of a base station (cell update), an update ormeasurement report (self optimization network (SON)/minimization drivingtest (MDT) measurement information and location information) of arouting area/local area, etc., the base station may deactivate the DRXoperation and a measurement/measurement reporting operation or changerelated parameters, thereby controlling the terminal to maintain the RRCconnection state while minimizing power consumption of the terminalwithout switching to the idle state.

In other words, to minimize power consumption of a terminal andefficiently use radio resources such as a control channel occupied formeasurement reporting, a base station may stop (deactivate) a DRXoperation switch (a switch between a non-DRX operation and the DRXoperation) and a measurement/measurement reporting operation, or changerelated parameters when at least one of the following conditions issatisfied:

-   -   a case in which there is no data exchange between the base        station and the terminal for a predetermined time,    -   a case in which no measurement-related event occurs for a        predetermined time,    -   a case in which a variance (or deviation) of a measurement        reporting value for a predetermined time is in a predetermined        range,    -   a case in which it is determined that mobility management of the        terminal is not necessary according to an MSE result of the        terminal,    -   a case in which a user requests a change by a manual setting,        and    -   a case in which a measurement reporting value satisfies a        predefined level (e.g., a threshold value).

According to a predetermined method in addition to the aforementionedconditions, a base station and a terminal may be configured to extend aDRX operation period (e.g., a DRX period or a DRX operation-relatedtimer such as an on-duration timer, an inactivity timer or aretransmission timer) and a measurement/measurement reporting period andoperate.

In other words, when at least one of the aforementioned conditions or anadditionally set condition is satisfied, a DRX operation period and ameasurement/measurement reporting period may be set to be longer thanexisting periods. To this end, by transmitting a control message to aterminal, a base station may control the terminal to stop (ordeactivate) a DRX operation switch and a measurement/measurementreporting operation, or to extend the DRX operation period and themeasurement/measurement reporting period.

To determine stop (deactivation) of measurement reporting or extensionof a measurement reporting period as mentioned above, a base station anda terminal may define a timer that defines a time for which the basestation and the terminal maintain an RRC connection without exchangingdata or a predetermined time section in which no measurement-relatedevent occurs, and variably set the value.

In addition, to determine stop of measurement reporting or extension ofa measurement reporting period, a variance (or deviation) of ameasurement reporting value reported from a terminal, a measurementreport level, a measurement report threshold value, etc. may be defined,and the values may be set to be variable. Such a timer value, adeviation and a threshold value used as parameters for determining stopof measurement reporting or extension of a measurement reporting periodmay be set through a control message, and used as a reference fortriggering an operation of stopping measurement reporting or extending ameasurement reporting period. As the control message that announcesinformation on stop of measurement reporting or extension of ameasurement reporting period, or instructs stop of measurement reportingor extension of a measurement reporting period, for example, an RRCcontrol message, a MAC control message (control protocol data unit(PDU)), a physical control channel, etc. may be used.

Meanwhile, a terminal that is instructed to stop measurement reportingor extend a measurement reporting period in such a way as describedabove may stop a measurement operation or a measurement reportingoperation, or perform measurement reporting according to an extendedmeasurement reporting period even when maintaining an RRC connection.However, when a control message announcing data reception is receivedfrom a base station, or information to be transmitted from the terminalto the base station is generated while the terminal stops themeasurement operation or the measurement reporting operation, orperforms the measurement reporting operation according to the extendedmeasurement reporting period, the measurement and measurement reportingoperations may be set on the basis of control massages (e.g.,“measObjectToAddModList” and “reportConfigToAddModList”) of a previouslyset measurement and measurement reporting period. In other cases, areset procedure based on the control messages for the measurement andmeasurement reporting period may be used at a point in time at whichdata is exchanged again between the base station and the terminal.

In addition to the measurement operation deactivation method asdescribed above, a method in which, when a terminal defines an operationlevel and reports information on the operation level to a base station,the base station sets parameters for a measurement operation or the DRXoperation according to the operation level reported by the terminal andtransmits the parameters to the terminal, and the terminal performs themeasurement operation or the DRX operation according to the receivedparameter may be used as a method for reducing power consumption of aterminal.

For example, when a terminal is supplied with power from the outsidesuch as recharging, or has a high enough battery level, relatedparameters may be set without limitation of a measurement operation orthe DRX operation. On the other hand, when a battery level of a terminalis not high enough, or there is a request from the terminal (or asetting by a user), parameters related to a measurement operation andthe DRX operation may be set, so that the terminal operates with minimumpower only. In other words, it is possible to set a terminal to performdifferent measurement operations and DRX operations according to anoperation level of the terminal.

As an operation level of a terminal, measurement operation and DRXoperation levels may be separately set, or may be integrated and set asone operation level.

First, when a measurement operation and the DRX operation are separatelyset, a setting may be made as described below.

[Measurement Operation Level]

Normal measurement mode: measurement and report operations are performedaccording to measurement parameters set to efficiently support servicequality or mobility management provided to a terminal.

Power optimization measurement mode: minimum measurement and reportoperations are performed while the lowest service quality of an RB whoseconnection has been established is satisfied to enable occurrence of ahandover failure (HOF) or a radio link failure (RLF).

Minimum measurement mode: even when all or some operations for RRMmeasurement or CSI measurement are not selectively set or areselectively set according to cells (e.g., a Pcell, an Scell, and anadjacent cell) or frequencies (the same frequency, a differentfrequency, a frequency of the same band, a frequency of an adjacentband, and whether or not frequency bands are connected in succession),substantial operations are deactivated.

[DRX Operation Level]

Non-DRX Mode: since a terminal is supplied with power from a chargingdevice, etc., or a battery level is high enough, a low-power consumptionoperation is not necessary, and no DRX operation is performed.

Normal DRX Mode: the DRX operation is performed according to a DRXparameter set depending on the service quality of an RB whose connectionhas been established.

Power Optimization DRX Mode: a connection is maintained while the lowestservice quality of a set RB is satisfied, and the DRX operation isperformed by setting a DRX parameter to minimize power consumption of aterminal.

Meanwhile, when measurement operation and DRX operation levels are notseparated but are integrated and set as one operation level, anoperation level of a terminal may be set as will be described below.

Normal Operation Mode: a terminal operates according to measurement andDRX parameters set to efficiently support service quality or mobilitymanagement provided to the terminal.

Power Sub-optimization Mode: a terminal performs an operation ofmaintaining a connection of an RB established to enable occurrence of anHOF or an RLF while minimizing power consumption of the terminal.

Power Optimization Operation Mode: to minimize power consumption, aterminal selectively limits (does not set or deactivates) all or some ofRRM measurement or CSI measurement operations in case of need andoperates while satisfying the lowest service quality of a set RB. Forexample, a terminal operates in a combination mode of the aforementionedminimum measurement mode for a measurement operation level and theaforementioned power optimization DRX mode for a DRX operation level.

An RRM measurement function for managing mobility of a terminal or aD2D-related measurement function may be configured to be activated ordeactivated through a manual setting change by a user, and the terminalmay define an additional RRC control message for notifying a basestation of information related to the manual setting change by the user.For example, if a user sets an RRM measurement operation in which aterminal performs a measurement of a serving base station, a campingbase station or an adjacent base station for mobility management to bedeactivated when the user accesses an arbitrary base station andreceives service, or the terminal camps on an arbitrary base station inthe idle state, the terminal may request such a setting from the basestation through a control message, and the base station may approve thesetting to deactivate the RRM measurement operation. When an RRMmeasurement operation of a terminal is deactivated in this way, a basestation may control the RRM measurement operation to be activated if itis determined that the terminal has moved, and mobility management isnecessary, or there is a manual request of a user. As described above, aD2D-related measurement function may also be activated or deactivatedaccording to a manual setting or request of a user.

FIG. 3 is a message sequence diagram illustrating a measurementoperation determination procedure of a terminal in a method of managinga terminal according to example embodiments of the present invention,that is, a procedure in which a base station 330 and a terminal 310cooperate to determine whether or not to perform a measurementoperation, a measurement operation level, or a measurement-relatedparameter.

Referring to FIG. 3, the terminal 310 first establishes a connectionwith the base station 330, performs data exchange and a measurement, andreports measurement results to the base station 330 (S301).

When a user manually changes a setting of the terminal 310, a timermanaging a remaining time set by the base station 330 expires, or anevent trigger based on MSE and a setting of a threshold value is pulled,the terminal 310 may determine to request stop (or deactivation) ofmeasurement reporting or a change of a measurement parameter (S303).

When the user manually changes a setting, or the event trigger ispulled, the terminal 310 transmits a control message for requesting stopof measurement reporting or a change of a measurement parameter to thebase station 330 (S305).

In step S305, the terminal 310 may transmit information on a desiredoperation level of the terminal 310 to the base station 330. Anoperation level of the terminal 310 may be configured to define anoperation level of measurement and measurement reporting, or to define aDRX operation level rather than a measurement operation level. When theoperation level of the terminal 310 is operation level information on ameasurement operation, the operation level information of the terminal310 may directly include the aforementioned measurement-relatedparameters, such as measurement operation-specific threshold values oroffset values for conditions for entering and releasing a measurementevent, a threshold value of a timer for measurement management, ameasurement event-triggering threshold value or a related adjustment(offset) value, a timer value for triggering execution of measurement ormeasurement reporting, a measurement period, a measurement reportingperiod or a measurement-target frequency, and a type of ameasurement-target cell, as well as measurement operationactivation/deactivation information, or operation level parametersexpressed as a combination of parameters may be separately defined andincluded in the operation level information of the terminal 310.

On the other hand, when the operation level information of the terminal310 is operation level information on the DRX operation of the terminal310, parameters such as a DRX period, a section (e.g., on-durationperiod) for monitoring control information, a timer (e.g., aretransmission timer or an inactivity timer) for the DRX operation,activation/deactivation of the DRX operation may be directly included inthe operation level information of the terminal 310, or an operationlevel parameter expressed as a combination of parameters may beseparately defined and included in the operation level information ofthe terminal 310.

The operation level of the terminal 310 may be defined in considerationof a measurement operation and the DRX operation together. In this case,a related control message may selectively include measurement operationor DRX parameters, or an operation level parameter expressed as acombination of parameters may be separately defined and included in therelated control message.

Referring back to FIG. 3, the base station 330 determines to stopmeasurement reporting or change the measurement parameter on the basisof information on the measurement report stop request or the measurementparameter change request (the information on the desired operation levelof the terminal 310) received from the terminal 310 in step S305, ordetermines to stop measurement reporting or change the measurementparameter when the event trigger based on a timer or a threshold valueset by the base station 330 itself is pulled (S307).

Subsequently, the base station 330 transmits a control message thatinstructs the determined stop of measurement/measurement reporting orchange of the measurement parameter to the terminal 310 (S309). In stepS309, the base station 330 may notify the terminal 310 of the operationlevel information of the terminal 310 in response to the operation levelinformation of the terminal 310 provided by the terminal 310 in stepS305.

The terminal 310 receives the control message that instructs stop ofmeasurement/measurement reporting or a change of the measurementparameter from the base station 330, and performs a measurementoperation or stops measurement/measurement reporting according to thereceived control message (S311).

Meanwhile, when a manual setting is changed by a user, a set timerexpires, or the event trigger based on MSE and a setting of a thresholdvalue is pulled while the terminal 310 is stoppingmeasurement/measurement reporting or performing a measurement operationaccording to the changed measurement parameter, the terminal 310 maydetermine to request restart (or activation) of measurement/measurementreporting or a change of a measurement parameter (S313).

In step S313, the manual setting by the user may denote, for example, acase in which a timer for stopping measurement/measurement reportingpersonally set by the user of the terminal 310 expires, or the userpersonally makes a setting that instructs restart ofmeasurement/measurement reporting while moving from a place at whichstop (deactivation) of measurement/measurement reporting has been set.

Also, in step S313, the terminal 310 may use a signal transmitted from aserving cell or location information on the terminal 310 as the eventtrigger based on MSE and a setting of a threshold value. Here, a case inwhich the terminal 310 uses the signal of the serving cell denotes anevent defined to request restart (activation) of measurement/measurementreporting or a change of a measurement parameter, for example, when thesignal of the serving cell becomes lower than a predetermined referencevalue. The signal transmitted from the serving cell may be defined to bea CRS, a CSI-RS, a data modulation (DM)-RS (or a UE-specific RS), apositioning RS (PRS), or an RSSI, an RSRP, an RSRQ, asignal-to-interference ratio (SIR), etc. of an RS from which a signalreceived from other cells (base stations or transmission nodes) can beestimated.

Thus, the event trigger based on MSE and a setting of a threshold valuemay be configured to recognize that the terminal 310 has left theserving cell, has moved a predetermined distance or more from the centerof the serving cell, or has been located in a boundary area of theserving cell using the aforementioned signal transmitted from theserving cell, and transmit a control message for performing measurementor measurement reporting or changing a measurement parameter to the basestation 330 when a condition of an event set to request restart(activation) of measurement/measurement reporting or a change of themeasurement parameter is satisfied. Here, when the previously set eventcondition is satisfied, the base station 330 may control or set theterminal 310 to perform a measurement of the serving cell or adjacentcells independently of transmission of the control message from theterminal 310 to the base station 330.

When location information is used as the event trigger based on MSE anda setting of a threshold value, it is possible to configure a procedureof requesting restart (activation) of measurement/measurement reportingor a change of the measurement parameter to be triggered if it isrecognized that the terminal 310 has left the serving cell requested (orset) by the terminal 310 to stop measurement/measurement reporting, hasmoved the predetermined distance or more from the center of the servingcell, or has been located in a boundary area of the serving cell usinglocation information applied by the system.

After determining to request restart (or activation) ofmeasurement/measurement reporting or a change of the measurementparameter S313, the terminal 310 transmits a control message forrequesting restart (or activation) of measurement/measurement reportingor a change of the measurement parameter according to content of a usersetting or an event trigger to the base station 330 (S315).

In step S315, the terminal 310 may transmit information on a desiredoperation level of the terminal 310, or selectively transmit measurementresults.

When the request for restart (or activation) of measurement/measurementreporting or the request for a change of the measurement parameter (orthe information on the desired operation level of the terminal 310)received from the terminal 310 in step S315 is used, an event based on atimer and/or a threshold value set by the base station 330 occurs, orthe base station 330 recognizes a change of a mobility state of theterminal 310 according to information obtained by estimating themobility state of the terminal 310 in a separate method, the basestation 330 may determine restart (or activation) ofmeasurement/measurement reporting or a change of the measurementparameter (S317).

Subsequently, the base station 330 transmits a control message thatinstructs restart of measurement/measurement reporting or a change ofthe measurement parameter to the terminal 310 (S319). In step S319, thebase station 330 may notify the terminal 310 of the operation levelinformation of the terminal 310.

The terminal 310 receives the control message that instructs stop ofmeasurement/measurement reporting or a change of the measurementparameter from the base station 330, and performs ameasurement/measurement reporting operation again according to thechange instructed by the received control message (S321).

In the measurement operation determination procedure of a terminalillustrated in FIG. 3, steps S301 to S321 may not be performed insequence. For example, even when step S303 or step S305 in FIG. 3 hasnot been performed, the base station 330 may perform step S307 and stepS309. Also, even when step S313 or step S315 in FIG. 3 has not beenperformed, the base station 330 may perform step S317 and step S319.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, in the measurement operation determinationprocedure of a terminal according to example embodiments of the presentinvention, the base station 330 and the terminal 310 cooperate with eachother to determine whether or not to perform a measurement operation, ameasurement operation level, or a measurement operation-relatedparameter according to a request of the terminal 310, thereby preventingunnecessary signaling overhead, reducing power consumption of theterminal 310, and improving the overall performance of a mobilecommunication system in a HetNet environment.

The measurement operation determination procedure illustrated in FIG. 3can be applied to defining a DRX operation procedure of the terminal310. In other words, the base station 330 and the terminal 310 maycooperate to determine whether or not to perform the DRX operation, aDRX operation level, or a DRX operation-related parameter according to arequest of the terminal 310.

FIG. 4 is a message sequence diagram illustrating a DRX operationdetermination procedure of a terminal in a method of managing a terminalaccording to example embodiments of the present invention, that is, aprocedure in which a base station 430 and a terminal 410 cooperate todetermine whether or not to perform the DRX operation, a DRX operationlevel, or a DRX-related parameter.

Referring to FIG. 4, the terminal 410 first establishes a connectionwith the base station 430, and performs operation while exchanging datawithout setting DRX (S401). Alternatively, the terminal 410 mayestablish a connection with the base station 430 and then perform theDRX operation.

When a user manually changes a setting, a remaining time timer managedby the base station 430 expires, or an event trigger based on MSE and asetting of a threshold value is pulled, the terminal 410 may determineto request a DRX operation switch (S403). In step S403, the DRXoperation switch denotes start of the DRX operation when the terminal410 is currently performing no DRX operation (non-DRX operation), and anoperation switch to deactivation of the DRX operation (i.e., non-DRXoperation) when the terminal 410 is currently performing the DRXoperation.

Subsequently, the terminal 410 transmits a control message forrequesting a DRX operation switch (i.e., start or stop of the DRXoperation) or a change of a DRX parameter to the base station 430(S405).

In step S405, the terminal 410 may transmit information on a desired DRXoperation level of the terminal 410 to the base station 430.

The base station 430 determines a DRX operation switch (i.e., start ofthe DRX operation or stop of the DRX operation) or a change of a DRXparameter using information on the DRX operation switch request (i.e.,start of the DRX operation or stop of the DRX operation) or the DRXparameter change request (or the information on the desired operationlevel of the terminal 410) received from the terminal 410 in step S405,or according to an event trigger based on a timer or a threshold valueof the base station 430 (S407).

Subsequently, the base station 430 transmits a control message thatinstructs the determined DRX operation switch (i.e., start of the DRXoperation or stop of the DRX operation) or change of the DRX parameterto the terminal 410 (S409). In step S409, the base station 430 maynotify the terminal 410 of the operation level information of theterminal 410.

The terminal 410 receives the control message that instructs the DRXoperation switch or the change of the DRX parameter from the basestation 430, and performs the DRX operation switch (start of the DRXoperation or stop of the DRX operation) according to content instructedby the received control message or performs the DRX operation accordingto the changed DRX parameter (S411).

Subsequently, when a manual setting is made by the user, a set timerexpires, or the event trigger based on MSE and a setting of a thresholdvalue is pulled, the terminal 410 may determine to request stop (orrestart) of the DRX operation or a change of a DRX parameter (S413).

In step S413, the manual setting by the user may denote a timer forstarting or stopping the DRX operation personally set by the user of theterminal 410, or a case in which the user personally sets the DRXoperation for stop of the DRX operation or restart of the DRX operationwhile the terminal 410 is moving from a place at which start of the DRXoperation or stop of the DRX operation has been set.

Also, in step S413, the terminal 410 may use a signal transmitted from aserving cell or location information as an event trigger based on MSEand a setting of a threshold value.

A case in which the terminal 410 uses the signal transmitted from theserving cell may denote an event defined for the terminal 410 to receivethe signal transmitted from the serving cell, compare the receivedsignal with a predetermined reference value, and transmit a DRXoperation stop request or a DRX operation restart request to the basestation 430 or make a DRX parameter change request on the basis of thecomparison result. Here, the signal transmitted from the serving cellmay be defined to be a CRS, a CSI-RS, a DM-RS (or a UE-specific RS), aPRS, or an RSSI, an RSRP, an RSRQ, a SIR, etc. of an RS from which asignal received from other cells (base stations or transmission nodes)can be estimated.

Thus, the event trigger based on MSE and a setting of a threshold valuemay denote that the terminal 410 recognizes that the terminal 410 hasleft the serving cell, has moved a predetermined distance or more fromthe center of the serving cell, or has been located in a boundary areaof the serving cell using a signal transmitted from the serving cell,and transmits a control message for requesting stop (restart) of the DRXoperation or changing a DRX parameter to the base station 430 when acondition of an event set to request stop (restart) of the DRX operationor a change of a DRX parameter is satisfied.

When location information is used as the event trigger based on MSE anda setting of a threshold value, a procedure of requesting stop (orrestart) of the DRX operation or a change of a DRX parameter may becontrolled to be triggered if it is recognized that the terminal 410 hasleft the serving cell requested (or set) by the terminal 410 to stop theDRX operation, has moved the predetermined distance or more from thecenter of the serving cell, or has been located in a boundary area ofthe serving cell using location information applied by the system.

Referring back to FIG. 4, when the event trigger based on a personalsetting by the user, a timer, or a threshold value is pulled asdescribed above in step S413, the terminal 410 transmits a controlmessage for requesting stop of the DRX operation (or restart of the DRXoperation) or a change of the DRX parameter according to content of thesetting by the user or the pulled event trigger to the base station 430(S415). Here, the terminal 410 may transmit information on a desiredoperation level of the terminal 410, or selectively transmit batteryinformation on the terminal 410.

The base station 430 may determine stop (or restart) of the DRXoperation or a change of the DRX parameter using the DRX operationswitch request (i.e., a change to deactivation of the DRX operation(non-DRX operation) during the DRX operation, or a change to restart ofthe DRX operation during a non-DRX operation) or the DRX parameterchange request (or the information on the desired operation level of theterminal 410) received from the terminal 410, or when an event based ona timer of the base station 430 or a threshold value occurs (S417).

Subsequently, the base station 430 transmits a control message thatinstructs stop (or restart) of the DRX operation or a change of the DRXparameter to the terminal 410 (S419). At this time, the base station 430may notify the terminal 410 of the operation level information of theterminal 410.

The terminal 410 receives the control message that instructs stop (orrestart) of the DRX operation or a change of the DRX parameter from thebase station 430, and stops (or performs) the DRX operation or changesthe DRX parameter to perform the DRX operation according to theinstruction of the received control message (S421).

In the DRX operation determination procedure of a terminal illustratedin FIG. 4, steps S401 to S421 may not be performed in sequence. Forexample, even when step S403 or step S405 in FIG. 4 has not beenperformed, the base station 430 may perform step S407 and step S409.Also, even when step S413 or step S415 in FIG. 4 has not been performed,the base station 430 may perform step S417 and step S419.

In the steps illustrated in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, pieces of controlinformation may be configured as one control message or separatelyconfigured as two or more control messages and transmitted. When piecesof control information are configured as two or more control messages,the control messages may be configured on the basis of different radioprotocol layers such as the RRC layer (an RRC control message using achannel dedicated to signaling), the MAC (MAC control PDU) layer, andthe physical layer (a physical control channel, a PDCCH, a physicaluplink control channel (PUCCH), etc.).

For example, a function and parameter for the DRX operation or ameasurement/measurement reporting operation are (re)set using an RRClayer control message, and activation (deactivation) of each DRXoperation or measurement operation, a parameter change request orinstruction, etc. may be performed using a MAC layer or physical layercontrol message (a MAC control PDU, information field bits or indicationbits of a physical control channel, feedback information bits, and soon).

In other words, when a terminal transmits information bits indicatingactivation (deactivation) of the DRX operation or each measurementoperation set through an RRC layer control message, a parameter change,or a desired specific parameter value or range to a base station using aMAC layer or physical layer control message, the base station maydetermine whether or not to perform activation (deactivation) and make aparameter change according to the control information (bits) receivedfrom the terminal, and then instruct the terminal to activate(deactivate) each operation or change a parameter using an RRC controlmessage or a MAC layer or physical layer control message.

Meanwhile, a terminal may have mixed functions. For example, a userterminal may be a terminal having a general voice and data servicefunction, a terminal supporting an MTC function, a terminal supportingthe D2D communication function of exchanging voice or data through D2Dcommunication not via a base station or a node of a mobile communicationnetwork, a terminal supporting a wireless local area network (LAN)function such as wireless fidelity (WiFi), or a terminal supporting allthe aforementioned functions.

A terminal supporting mixed functions as mentioned above may consumemore power as a variety of functions are performed. For example, aterminal supporting the wireless LAN function continuously searches fora wireless LAN access point (AP) to access a wireless LAN, and aterminal supporting D2D communication performs a search or monitoring tocheck whether or not there is another terminal, whether or not there isa D2D communication service, etc., and thus power consumption mayincrease. Also, a terminal supporting a global positioning system (GPS)function performs operation for detecting a GPS signal, which mayincrease power consumption. In other words, when a terminal having mixedfunctions performs a variety of functions, power consumption increases,and thus usage time of a battery installed in the terminal is reduced.

To reduce power consumption of a terminal, a method of controllingvarious functions of the terminal to be selectively performed accordingto a setting of a user, an implicit scheme, or an autonomous scheme maybe used.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a network environment towhich a method of managing a terminal according to example embodimentsof the present invention is applied, that is, an AP search scenario of aterminal when an AP 510 of a wireless LAN is in a service area 501 of apredetermined base station 500.

Referring to FIG. 5, terminals 511 and 513 may receive necessary servicevia the AP 510 for a wireless LAN service in the service area 501 of thebase station 500. However, in order to receive such a wireless LANservice, it is not necessary for the terminals 511 and 513 to maintain afunction of searching the AP 510 in an active state all the time.

In other words, in order to search for the necessary AP 510 whilereducing power consumption of the terminals 511 and 513, the terminals511 and 513 may be set to search for or monitor the AP 510 only when theterminals 511 and 513 enter the service area 501 of the base station 500in which the AP 510 is located.

In a mobile communication system, the terminal 511 having established aconnection with the base station 500 or the terminal 513 not havingestablished a connection with the base station 500 may acquireinformation, such as a unique identifier (ID) (e.g., cell ID) of thebase station 500 or an ID (e.g., local area ID) indicating the servicearea 501 of the base station 500, and an RA ID, from system informationbroadcast by the base station 500.

Thus, a terminal may be set to search for an AP for a wireless LANservice only when a user designates a specific base station and enters aservice area of the designated specific base station.

For example, a terminal may be set to start an AP search or monitoringoperation when the terminal checks a school, a company, a home, an areaspecially designated by a user, or a service area of a home base stationor a CSG cell, and enters the service area of the corresponding basestation or the corresponding area, and may be set to stop an AP searchor monitoring operation when the terminal leaves the service area of thecorresponding base station or the corresponding area.

The aforementioned setting of the terminal may be made through only aprocedure in which the user selects the corresponding area through auser interface of the terminal with no need to recognize or check an IDof the corresponding base station or the corresponding area. Forexample, by only selecting or touching a button, an icon or a graphicobject enabling AP search or monitoring in a monitor screen of aterminal, the corresponding area or base station may be set as an areaor base station that enables AP search or monitoring. When a specificarea or a specific base station is selected in such a way, the terminalmay store an ID of the specific area or the specific base station usingsystem information of a mobile communication system. Subsequently, theterminal may be controlled to perform a wireless LAN AP search ormonitoring operation when the terminal enters a service area of thespecific area or the specific base station, and a procedure in which theuser rechecks whether to enable execution of a wireless LAN AP search ormonitoring operation through a pop-up in a monitor of the terminal or asignaling (e.g., sound or vibration) may be introduced.

Meanwhile, as described above, the function of searching for ormonitoring an activated wireless LAN AP may be implicitly orautonomously deactivated not to perform the corresponding AP search ormonitoring operation when a terminal leaves a set specific area or aservice area of a specific base station, or a procedure in which a userperforms rechecking may be introduced to determine whether or not toperform AP search or monitoring according to a result of rechecking bythe user.

FIG. 6 is a message sequence diagram illustrating an AP search procedurein a method of managing a terminal according to example embodiments ofthe present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, when a terminal 610 is located in a service area ofan arbitrary base station 630, the terminal 610 may receive systeminformation broadcast by the base station 630 (S601), and recognize anID of the base station 630 and/or an ID of an area in which the terminal610 is currently located using the received system information.

The terminal 610 is set to enable activation of an operation ofsearching for or monitoring an AP 650 for a wireless LAN when a user isat the base station 630 or in an area to which the base station 630belongs and wants to the activation (S603). As mentioned above, theterminal 610 may be configured to provide a user interface, so that theuser adds the base station 630 or area information to a list enabling asearch for the AP 650 through the user interface.

After the specific base station 630 or the specific area is set as atarget for which the operation of searching for or monitoring the AP 650is enabled to be activated, the terminal 610 checks the ID of the basestation 630 or the area included in the system information broadcast bythe base station 630 during a movement, and determines whether the IDcoincides with an ID for which the operation of searching for ormonitoring the AP 650 is enabled to be activated (S605).

When the ID of the base station 630 or the area acquired from the systeminformation broadcast by the base station 630 coincides with the ID forwhich the operation of searching for or monitoring the AP 650 is enabledto be activated, the terminal 610 receives beacon information,advertisement information, etc. transmitted by the AP 650 (S607). Usingthe received pieces of information, the terminal 60 searches for ormonitors the AP 650 capable of a wireless LAN service, and activates awireless LAN service when the AP 650 capable of a wireless LAN serviceis searched for (S609).

Meanwhile, a procedure in which the user rechecks whether to enableactivation of the operation of searching for or monitoring a wirelessLAN AP in a service area of a specific base station or in a specificarea may be added after step S605 of FIG. 6.

In the AP search procedure of a terminal illustrated in FIG. 6, when theoperation of searching for or monitoring a wireless LAN AP is activated,the terminal 610 may check the system information on the mobilecommunication system to determine whether or not the ID of the basestation 630 or the area in the system information coincides with the IDfor which the operation of searching for or monitoring an AP is enabledto be activated (S605), and may implicitly control the operation ofsearching for or monitoring a wireless LAN AP to be deactivated.

According to procedures as illustrated in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, a complexterminal having a variety of functions may control various functions aswell as the above-described operation of searching for or monitoring awireless LAN AP to be activated only when the terminal enters a servicearea of a specific base station or a specific area.

For example, when a terminal having mixed functions is a terminalcapable of D2D communication, a terminal (e.g., a specific terminal of afamily member, an acquaintance, or so on) separately registered for aD2D communication service, or an MTC terminal, procedures as illustratedin FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 may be applied as a procedure of activating (ordeactivating) an operation of searching for or monitoring a servicesignal related to D2D communication or a procedure of activating (ordeactivating) an MTC function, and thereby it is possible to control theprocedures to be activated (or deactivated) when the terminal enters aservice area of a specific base station or a specific area.

Also, a complex terminal having the GPS function may be set to alwaysreceive a GPS signal when external power is connected to the terminal,and set to receive no GPS signal when a connection with external poweris closed. When it may be implicitly determined that a complex terminalhaving the GPS function is located indoors such as a home or a company(e.g., when it is possible to check that the terminal having the GPSfunction is located in a service area of a home base station or a CSGcell), the method and procedure described above may be applied todeactivate an operation of receiving a GPS signal.

Meanwhile, according to the procedure of activating and deactivating awireless LAN AP search or monitoring operation illustrated in FIG. 6,the measurement and measurement reporting operationactivation/deactivation procedure and the DRX operationactivation/deactivation procedure illustrated in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 maybe configured to be activated when a terminal enters a service area of apredetermined base station, and to be deactivated when the terminalleaves the service area of the predetermined base station.

For example, procedures related to setup for activating the AP searchoperation performed in step S603, step S605 and step S609 of FIG. 6 maybe applied to the measurement and measurement reporting operationactivation/deactivation procedure and the DRX operationactivation/deactivation procedure. In other words, for the measurementand measurement reporting operation activation/deactivation procedureand the DRX operation activation/deactivation procedure, the trigger ofstep S303 and step S313 of FIG. 3 or step S403 and step S413 of FIG. 4may not be based on a timer or a threshold value, but ID information onthe base station 330 or 430 may be compared with a predetermined basestation ID (or area ID) and checked to request an operation switch foractivating or deactivating execution of a measurement/measurementreporting operation or the DRX operation from the base station 330 or430. Here, the base station ID (or area ID) set in advance to triggerexecution of activation or deactivation of the measurement/measurementreporting operation or the DRX operation may be set to be a specificbase station (or group), such as a home base station, CSG, company orschool, or area ID by a user, or may be set through a message when theuser subscribes to service or establishes a connection in a mobilecommunication network.

Recently, a terminal such as a smart phone or a pad-type terminal isalways connected to a mobile communication network or a wireless LAN toprovide service of an “always-on” concept, and provides a variety ofservices such as a messenger and mail transmission and reception.

However, when a terminal continuously maintains a connection with a basestation to provide service as mentioned above, control signaling for ameasurement operation or measurement result reporting increases in theconnected state (e.g., an RRC_connected state), a failure may occur in amobility management procedure such as handover, power consumption of theterminal increases, occupation of physical control channel resourcessuch as feedback information, a sounding symbol or a reference symbolincreases, and thereby efficiency of the system is lowered.

To solve these problems caused when a terminal continuously maintains aconnection with a base station, a terminal providing service such as amessenger and mail transmission and reception that generates burst datamay be managed in the idle state. However, in this case, a state switchfrom the idle state to the connected state frequently occurs to forwarddata from or to the terminal, and control signaling necessary forconnection establishment increases according to such a frequent stateswitch, which lowers efficiency of the system as a result.

To overcome such inefficiency of a system, a dormant state correspondingto an intermediate state between the connected state and the idle statemay be introduced, like in an existing universal mobiletelecommunication system (UMTS). However, in this case, introduction ofthe dormant state requires a change of a standard procedure, and thus itis difficult to use the dormant state in practice.

Thus, instead of introducing an additional state such as the dormantstate, information (e.g., RRC context information) on a terminal may bemaintained for a predetermined time even after a connection between abase station and the terminal is closed when the terminal switches fromthe connected state to the idle state.

In other words, when all data stored in a transmission buffer of theterminal or the base station is transmitted, and new transmission datais not generated for a predetermined time, the terminal is controlled toswitch from the connected state to the idle state. At this time,information (e.g., RRC context information) on the terminal is notremoved immediately after disconnection, but maintained for thepredetermined time or a time set in a disconnection procedure. In thiscase, the connection between the terminal and the base station has beenclosed, it is not necessary for the terminal to perform a measurementoperation and measurement result reporting that have been performed inthe connected state, and also it is possible to avoid occupation ofphysical control channel resources such as feedback information, asounding symbol or a reference symbol.

In addition, a mobility management procedure of the terminal can becontrolled to be performed on the basis of the idle state rather thanthe connected state, and thus it is possible to reduce power consumptionof the terminal.

Meanwhile, when new data is generated during a time in which informationon a terminal is maintained even if a connection between the terminaland a base station has been closed, and the terminal switches from theidle state to the connected state, it is possible to reduce signalingoverhead necessary for a connection establishment procedure using themaintained information (e.g., RRC context information) on the terminal.

Terminal information maintained for a predetermined time after aconnection between a terminal and a base station has been closed denotesinformation, such as information related to mobility of the terminal,terminal ID information, information on service provided to theterminal, ciphering (security) information, data information andinformation related to retransmission, setup information on the MAClayer and the RLC layer, physical control channel setup information, andmanagement information on the established connection, that is necessaryfor the base station and the terminal to maintain the connection andprovide service. Here, information necessary to be maintained during aninformation maintenance time may be selectively set from among theaforementioned pieces of information, and terminal information to bemaintained may be separately set by the base station and the terminal.

A time in which terminal information is maintained may be set in unitsof milliseconds, seconds, minutes, or hours, and managed through atimer. When the information maintenance time (or terminal informationremoval time) timer expires, stored terminal information is removed, andthus cannot be used in a connection establishment procedure.

A terminal information maintenance time (or timer) may be set accordingto base station or arbitrary terminal. If the terminal informationmaintenance time is set according to base station, the terminalinformation maintenance time may be transmitted to terminals usingsystem information broadcast by a base station, or the base station mayforward a parameter indicating the terminal information maintenance timeto the terminal when the connection is established (or closed).

On the other hand, if the terminal information maintenance time is setaccording to terminal, the base station may forward the informationmaintenance time parameter to the corresponding terminal when theconnection is established (or closed). The information maintenance timeparameter or whether or not to apply the information maintenance timeparameter may be determined according to a service type, a traffic type,a terminal capability (UE capability), or so on.

As described above, even when a connection between a base station and aterminal is closed, information necessary for connection establishmentor partial information is stored for an information maintenance time,and when the connection is established again in the informationmaintenance time, the stored information is used to reduce signalingoverhead of the re-establishment procedure. When the informationmaintenance time expires, maintained terminal information is removed.

Meanwhile, when a base station that a terminal attempts to access in aninformation maintenance time is changed due to movement of the terminal,the base station to which the terminal attempts a connectionestablishment procedure may be notified of information on a base stationthat is maintaining information on the terminal, so that the terminalinformation can be received via a network.

In addition, a disconnection timer (e.g., RRC release timer) may beintroduced, so that a connection between a base station and a terminalis closed after the disconnection timer expires.

When a disconnection timer is used, it is the connected state before thedisconnection timer expires. Thus, control signaling for a measurementoperation and measurement result reporting in the connected state (e.g.,the RRC_connected state) increase, a failure may occur in a mobilitymanagement procedure such as handover, power consumption of the terminalmay increase, and occupation of physical control channel resources suchas feedback information/a sounding symbol/a reference symbol increases.

However, it is possible to avoid signaling overhead necessary for aconnection establishment procedure according to frequent stateswitching. Like an information maintenance time parameter, adisconnection timer may also be set in units of milliseconds, seconds,minutes, or hours, and set according to a base station or an arbitraryterminal. Whether or not to apply a disconnection timer parameter may bedetermined according to a service type, a traffic type, a terminalcapability (UE capability), or so on.

When making a disconnection request, a terminal may request setup of aninformation maintenance time parameter or a disconnection timerparameter, or application of an information maintenance time or adisconnection timer. When a request as mentioned above is received in adisconnection procedure, a base station may forward an informationmaintenance time parameter or a disconnection timer parameter to theterminal, or set or instruct application of the information maintenancetime or whether or not to apply the disconnection timer beforedisconnection.

Meanwhile, by introducing a “log-in” concept of maintaining a connectionof provided service regardless of a screen change, a terminal may beconfigured to request stop (deactivation) of measurement/measurementreporting, a change of a measurement parameter, a DRX operation switch,a change of a DRX parameter, etc. according to a manual setting by auser when a “screen lock function,” a “screensaver function,” etc. isperformed by a user's key or touch manipulation or a timer set inadvance, and a screen of the terminal maintaining a connection forservice is changed.

Also, a manual setting by a user may be applied to a case in which the“screen lock function” or the “screensaver function” is stopped by theuser. In other words, a terminal may be configured to request restart(activation) of measurement/measurement reporting, a change of ameasurement parameter, a DRX operation switch, a change of a DRXparameter, etc. from a base station when the “screen lock function” orthe “screensaver function” is stopped by a user's key or touchmanipulation or a timer set in advance, and a screen of the terminal ischanged.

In addition to a method based on a screen change function of a terminalas mentioned above, a manual setting by a user denotes all methods inwhich a user personally sets a related parameter or sets an operationchange through key or touch manipulation to change a measurementoperation or the DRX operation of a terminal.

The screen change function of a terminal or a manual setting change by auser including personal setup of a related parameter or an operationchange by the user is recognized through a function of control softwareinstalled in the terminal, and a function in the terminal correspondingto the screen change function or the manual setting change is performed,so that an event for the terminal to make the operation change may beconfigured to be triggered according to the manual setting change by theuser.

The “log-in” concept may denote a state in which, when a screen of aterminal is blocked by the “screen lock function,” the “screensaverfunction” or other methods, or a user has made no input through an inputmeans of the terminal for a predetermined time while the terminal ismaintaining a connection with a base station for service, measurementoperations of the terminal are reduced as much as possible ordeactivated, the DRX function is applied to the same level as in theidle state, and thereby power consumption of the terminal is minimized.

When a terminal is in the “log-in” state, a handover procedure differentfrom a mobility procedure in a general connected state (i.e., theRRC_connected state) may be applied to the terminal. For example, ahandover procedure is not performed every time a cell is changed due tomovement of a terminal, but may be performed only when a cell level ischanged, or the terminal leaves a predetermined area. Here, a case inwhich a cell level is changed may denote movement between a macro celland a micro cell (or pico cell, CSG cell or home cell) having differentpower levels or service area sizes.

In other words, a terminal may be configured to perform a handoverprocedure only when the terminal in the “log-in” state moves from amacro cell to a small cell such as a pico cell, a CSG cell or a homecell. Also, a terminal may be configured to perform a handover procedureeven when the terminal in the “log-in” state moves between differentpico cells, CSG cells or home cells having similar power levels butdifferent cell attributes. For example, a terminal may be configured toperform a handover procedure when the terminal in the “log-in” statemoves from a CSG cell to a pico cell or a home cell.

Alternatively, a terminal may be configured to perform a handoverprocedure only when the terminal leaves a predetermined area, theterminal leaves a plurality of cell areas included in a predeterminedrange such as a tracking area (TA) or an RA even between cells of thesame level, or the terminal in the “log-in” state moves through apredetermined number of cells or more.

Alternatively, in case of need, even a terminal in a general connectedstate rather than the aforementioned “log-in” state may perform ahandover procedure to reduce system overload or signaling overheadcaused by the handover procedure only when a cell level is changed, orthe terminal leaves a predetermined area.

FIG. 7 is a message sequence diagram illustrating a handover procedurein a method of managing a terminal according to example embodiments ofpresent invention when a terminal is in the log-in state.

Referring to FIG. 7, a base station 710 sets in advance whether or notto enable an arbitrary terminal 750 to enter the “log-in” state (S701).The terminal 750 may transmit a control message that requests a “log-in”state function to be enabled or disabled to the base station 710. Thebase station 710 receives the control message that is transmitted fromthe terminal 750 to request the “log-in” state function to be enabled ordisabled, determines whether or not to enable the “log-in” statefunction, and then transmits a control message that sets the “log-in”state to be enabled or disabled to the terminal 750 as the determinationresult. Even when there is no request from the terminal 750, the basestation 710 may transmit a control message that sets the “log-in” stateto be enabled or disabled to the terminal 750.

The terminal 750 receives the control message that enables the “log-in”state from the base station 710, determines whether or not an eventcondition for entering the “log-in” state is satisfied, and thendetermines whether or not to request entry into the “log-in” state whenthe event condition for entering the “log-in” state is satisfied (S703).

When the terminal 750 determines to enter the “log-in” state, theterminal 750 transmits a control message that requests entry into the“log-in” state to the base station 710 (S705). As mentioned above, thecontrol message that requests entry into the “log-in” state may betransmitted with a control message that requests stop (deactivation) ofmeasurement/measurement reporting according to an event based on anoperation level of the terminal 750 or a manual setting of a user, achange of a measurement parameter, a DRX operation switch, a change of aDRX parameter, etc., or may replace the control message. Alternatively,the control message that requests stop (deactivation) ofmeasurement/measurement reporting, a change of a measurement parameter,a DRX operation switch, a change of a DRX parameter, etc. may betransmitted instead of the control message that requests entry into the“log-in” state.

The base station 710 receives the control message that requests entryinto the “log-in” state from the terminal 750, and determines whether ornot to enable the terminal 750 to enter the “log-in” state (S707).

Subsequently, the base station 710 transmits a control message thatannounces whether or not to enable the terminal 750 to enter the“log-in” state according to the determination result of step S707 to theterminal 750 (S709). Here, the base station 710 may be configured totransmit a control message only when entry into the “log-in” state isenabled, and transmit no control message when entry into the “log-in”state is disabled. In order for the terminal 750 to operate according tosuch operation of the base station, the terminal 750 may be configuredto implicitly recognize that the base station 710 does not enable entryinto the “log-in” state and does not enter the “log-in” state when thecontrol message that enables entry into the “log-in” state is notreceived for a predetermined time after the terminal 750 transmits thecontrol message that requests entry into the “log-in” state, and theterminal 750 may be configured to transmit the control message thatrequests entry into the “log-in” state only when the predetermined timeelapses, or a condition is satisfied.

The terminal 750 receives the explicit control message that enablesentry into the “log-in” state from the base station 710 or recognizesthat entry into the “log-in” state is enabled in the aforementionedimplicit method in step S709, and performs a measurement and reportingoperation, the DRX operation, etc. according to a parameter setting forthe “log-in” state (S711).

In example embodiments of the present invention, the base station 710may control the terminal 750 in the “log-in” state to conform to alimited handover method and procedure. In other words, even when a cellis changed in the connected state, the terminal in the “log-in” statemay be configured to acquire system information and stay withoutperforming handover in case of need as in a camping procedure of aterminal that is in the idle state in an adjacent cell. When a terminalin the “log-in” state is configured to conform to the limited handovermethod and procedure, the terminal may be configured not to performhandover every time a cell is changed but to perform handover only whena cell level is changed, or the terminal leaves a predetermined area.

Thus, the terminal 750 in the “log-in” state determines whether or notthere is data to be transmitted over an uplink and whether or not toperform handover in the “log-in” state (S713), and performs a randomaccess (RA) procedure to a base station 730 of a cell in which theterminal 750 is currently located when there is data to be transmittedover an uplink, a change in cell level is recognized, or it isrecognized that the terminal 750 has left the predetermined area (S721).At this time, the terminal 750 transmits an RA preamble to the basestation 730 for the RA procedure, receives an RA response message to theRA preamble from the base station 730, and then transmits information onthe serving cell 710 to which the terminal 750 has established aconnection, a terminal ID, information on a connected RB, etc. to thebase station 730. In addition, the terminal 750 may transmit a controlmessage that requests limited handover or allocation of uplink resourcesfor uplink data transmission to the base station 730. Here, theinformation on the serving cell 710 may include a cell type, a cell ID,a physical cell ID (PCI), radio access technology (RAT) information onthe cell 710, and so on. The terminal ID may include ID information,such as a cell-radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) allocated bythe serving cell 710, that enables a base station to uniquely identifythe terminal 750. Also, the connected RB information may include controlparameter information for a logical connection and physical connectionestablished between the serving cell 710 and the terminal 750 forservice that is being provided.

The base station 730 receives a handover request or an uplink resourceallocation from the terminal 750 in the “log-in” state in step S721, andtransmits a control message that requests the serving cell base station710 to check information on the terminal 750 or perform handover to theserving cell base station 710 (S723).

The serving cell base station 710 receives the control message thatrequests check of information on the terminal 750 maintaining aconnection with the serving cell base station 710 itself in the “log-in”state or handover from the arbitrary base station 730, sets the basestation 730 as a target base station, and forwards control informationnecessary for a handover procedure and/or information on the terminal750 stored in the serving cell base station 710 itself (S725).

The target base station 730 receives a response message to the requestfor checking information on the terminal 750, a response message to thehandover request, or the information on the terminal 750 stored in theserving cell base station 710 from the serving cell 710, stores thereceived information on the terminal 750, and then newly sets a controlparameter necessary for handover to finish the handover procedure, andin case of need, allocates uplink resources for data transmission andreceives data from the terminal 750 (S727).

Meanwhile, when downlink data to be transmitted to the terminal 750 inthe “log-in” state is generated, the base station 710 requests anadjacent base station including the base station 730 to notify theterminal 750 that downlink data has been generated (S717).

The base station 730 that has received a request for notification ofdownlink data for the terminal 750 in the “log-in” state in step S717notifies the terminal 750 of generation of downlink data using paginginformation (S719).

When the terminal 750 in the “log-in” state checks the paginginformation that notifies the terminal of generation of downlink data ina process of acquiring system information on the cell 730 in which theterminal 750 itself stays and monitoring paging information, theterminal 750 performs an RA procedure to the cell 730 (S721).

The base station 730 having checked a response to the paging informationthrough the RA procedure of the terminal 750 in the “log-in” state instep S721 may transmit a message that requests handover together withinformation on the terminal 750 to the serving cell 710 (S723).

The serving cell base station 710 may receive the request forinformation on the terminal 750 in the “log-in” state from the basestation 730, and forward downlink data together with a response messageor transmit a control message for changing a data path between a basestation and a network to the target base station 730 and a network.

The base station 730 may receive the downlink data to be transmitted tothe terminal 750 from the serving cell 710, finish a handover procedurewith the terminal 750, and transmit the downlink data to the terminal750 (S727).

In the handover method and procedure for the terminal 750 in the“log-in” state illustrated in FIG. 7, a control message between the basestations 710 and 730 and the terminal 750 may be configured to betransmitted in the form of a layer 3 message (e.g., RRC controlinformation) or a layer 2 message (e.g., a MAC control PDU or a MACcontrol element). Also, as a control message between the serving cellbase station 710 and the target cell base station 730, existing handoverrequest and handover response messages may be used, or an additionalcontrol message may be configured and transmitted.

Description will be made below regarding an example in which a method ofmanaging a terminal according to example embodiments of the presentinvention is applied to a HetNet environment including a cloud basestation.

The above-described mobility management for a terminal in the “log-in”state can be more efficiently applied to a HetNet environment includinga cloud base station.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram showing a constitution example of aHetNet including a cloud base station to which a method of managing aterminal according to example embodiments of the present invention isapplied.

Referring to FIG. 8, a cloud base station 800 may include a virtual cell810 that performs a function of a base station, and remote wirelessnodes (e.g., RRHs or radio units (RUs)) 821 and 823 that perform an RFfunction. The cloud base station 800 and the remote wireless nodes 821and 823 may be connected through a wired or wireless interface, and theconnection is not limited to a specific connection method.

The cloud base station 800 may include the one or more virtual cells 810and the one or more remote wireless nodes 821 and 823, and may include acontrol entity performing a control function to efficiently manage theone or more virtual cells 810 and the one or more remote wireless nodes821 and 823.

Using the plurality of virtual cells 810 and the plurality of remotewireless nodes 821 and 823, the control entity of the cloud base station800 may perform coordinated operation and function distributionfunctions necessary for controlling interference, managing mobility, andsupporting the CoMP function, an RRM function and a HetNet function, andcontrol related functions.

The cloud base station 800 may configure radio protocol functions of aphysical layer (layer 1), layer 2, and layer 3 generally supported by abase station to be distributed to the virtual cells 810 and the remotewireless nodes 821 and 823. Here, functions of layer 2 may include RLC,MAC and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) functions, and functionsof layer 3 may include an RRC function. The remote wireless nodes 821and 823 of the cloud base station 800 may be configured to handle theradio function and some functions of the physical layer, and the virtualcells 810 may handle the other functions of the physical layer andfunctions of layer 2 and layer 3. Alternatively, the remote wirelessnodes 821 and 823 may be configured to handle the radio function,functions of the physical layer, and a part of a MAC function of layer2, and the virtual cells 810 may handle other functions of layer 2 andfunctions of layer 3.

The cloud base station 800 has all functions of a general base stationto serve as a macro base station, thereby providing service directly toa general user terminal 855 in a service area.

The cloud base station 800 may include micro base stations 831 and 833consisting of small cells, such as a pico cell, a CSG cell, and a homebase station (home node), having a small service area in the servicearea of the cloud base station 800. The remote wireless node 823 and themicro base station 833 of the cloud base station 800 may provide serviceto a user terminal 852 together using the CA or CoMP function, and soon.

In a HetNet including the cloud base station 800 as described above, theabove-described mobility management for a terminal in the “log-in” statecan be more efficiently applied.

In other words, when a mobility management procedure is performed with aterminal maintained in the “log-in” state without switching the terminalto the idle state to support a function of transmitting instant message(IM) traffic that is a small amount of data generated at long datageneration intervals or a small amount of data that is intermittentlygenerated by a terminal such as a smart phone, it is possible to supportservice of the ultimate concept of “Always-On.”

For example, when the cloud base station 800 is installed in a building,it is possible to configure a mobility management function (e.g., aprocedure for handover or changing a remote wireless node) caused by achange of a remote wireless node not to be performed if a terminal 853generating IM traffic receives service from the remote wireless node821, leaves a service area of the remote wireless node 821 in the“log-in” state, and then moves to a service area of the other remotewireless node 823 in the building.

When a general mobility management procedure is performed, althoughthere is no data to be transmitted or received, a terminal and a basestation need to exchange information for transmitting a control messagefor mobility management and perform the DRX operation again, or exchangecontrol messages to perform a procedure for entering the “log-in” state.

However, example embodiments of the present invention are configured tobe able to restart service using the remote wireless node 823 having apoint at which a terminal is located as a service area and a procedureillustrated in FIG. 7 only when IM traffic is generated while theterminal in the “log-in” state is moving in a building including a cloudbase station, or there is paging information for a network.

Meanwhile, only a remote wireless node constituting a cloud base stationmay be configured to perform the procedure illustrated in FIG. 7 when aterminal in the log-in” state restarts service due to generation ofuplink or downlink data in a cloud base station environment. Here, theterminal may be configured to attempt access for restarting service tothe cloud base station 800 supporting macro service when the terminal islocated in service areas of the micro base stations 831 and 833 in theservice area of the cloud base station 800 and finds no remote wirelessnode constituting the cloud base station 800.

As described above, when the cloud base station 800 manages mobility ofa terminal in the “log-in’ state, a handover/terminal checking procedureof step S723 and step S725 and a downlink data generation notificationprocedure of step S717 may not be performed in the procedure illustratedin FIG. 7. Also, in step S727 of FIG. 7, data transmission and receptionmay be enabled by only checking a connection between a terminal and aremote wireless node without performing a handover procedure.

When there is no limitation as described above in a HetNet environmentincluding the cloud base station 800 as shown in FIG. 8, a terminal mayattempt access for restarting service through a micro base stationpresent in the service area of the cloud base station 800 according tothe procedure illustrated in FIG. 7.

However, when a terminal in the “log-in” state leaves the service areaof the cloud base station 800, a general handover procedure may beperformed.

To efficiently manage mobility of a terminal and improve efficiency of asystem in a HetNet environment including various base stations ortransmission nodes mentioned above, a terminal may report information toa base station during a movement when the terminal in the idle stateswitches to the connected state.

For example, in a HetNet environment as shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2,service areas may be classified into a macro layer service area and amicro layer service area. Here, the macro layer service area may denotean area in which a macro base station such as an eNB or a normal cellprovides service, and the micro layer service area may denote an area inwhich a micro base station such as a micro cell, a pico cell, a femtocell, a home cell or a CSG cell provides service.

A remote wireless node (e.g., RRH), a relay, etc. may be selectivelyincluded in a macro layer service area or a micro layer service area viathe corresponding base station connected with a network system, therebyproviding service.

In a HetNet environment as described above, a terminal in the connectedstate (RRC_connected state) is configured to receive service through RRMmeasurement and CSI measurement reporting via a cell constituting amacro layer service area when movement speed is high, and to receiveservice via a cell constituting a micro layer service area when movementspeed is low, so that the quality of the service can be maintainedaccording to a movement state of the terminal.

On the other hand, it is not possible to perform efficient connectioncontrol (RRC connection control) on a terminal in the idle state inwhich no connection has been established because it is not possible toknow a movement state.

However, when the terminal provides MSE information and mobility historyinformation to the corresponding cell in a connection establishmentprocess, connection control for the terminal may be efficiently made.

For example, in example embodiments of the present invention, a terminalmay be configured to report information on a cell or a node on which theterminal has camped in a predetermined time section and information oncell selection or cell reselection in the idle state, so that mobilityhistory information on the terminal can be acquired. Here, the campingcell information may include ID information such as a PCI, a global cellID (GCI) and a transmission point ID of the corresponding cell, andinformation such as the number of cells in which the terminal hasperformed camping and a time (e.g., time of stay) for which the terminalhas stayed in a camping cell. Also, the cell selection/reselectioninformation may include the number of cells on which the terminal hasperformed cell selection/reselection for camping and ID information onthe corresponding cells.

Table 1 shows types and meanings of parameters of mobility historyinformation that can be used in managing mobility of a terminal.

TABLE 1 Parameter Type Parameter Meaning Others MobilityHistory >Indicates whether mobility history Expressed by one or moreInformation Forms information is for low-speed bits movement orhigh-speed movement >0: is low-speed movement information, and mobilityhistory information includes ID information and stay time information ona current cell of a cell in which a terminal has previously camped >1:is high-speed movement information, and mobility history informationincludes the number of cells in which a terminal has camped in anarbitrary time section, the number of cells on which the terminal hasperformed cell selection/reselection, the number of cells in which theterminal has camped at the same time, and ID information on thecorresponding cell Current Cell An ID such as a PCI/GCI of a cell toNine or more bits Information (ID) which a connection is currently beingattempted Current Cell Stay time of a cell to which a Two or more bits,and can Information (Stay Time) connection is currently being be set inunits of attempted milliseconds (ms), subframes (sf), radio frames (rf),seconds (s), minutes (m), hours (h), and so on Previous Camping Cell AnID such as a PCI/GCI of a cell in Nine or more bits Information (ID)which a terminal has camped immediately before a current cell PreviousCamping Cell Stay time of a cell in which a Two or more bits, and canInformation (Stay Time) terminal has camped immediately be set in unitsof ms, sf, rf, before a current cell s, m, h, and so on Valid Time ofMobility A valid time section applied to Two or more bits, and canHistory Information acquire mobility history information be set in unitsof ms, sf, rf, s, m, h, and so on Information on The number of cells inwhich a The maximum number of terminal has camped before a cell to cellsin which the terminal which a connection is currently has camped can bebeing attempted in a valid time limitedly set, and section of mobilityhistory information on cells other information than duplicated cells(e.g., cells having the same cell ID) An ID such as a PCI/GCI of a cellin Camping Cell which a terminal has camped before (Number) a cell towhich a connection is currently being attempted in a valid time sectionof mobility history information Number of Cells on The number of cellson which a Indicates the number of Which Cell terminal has performedcell cells including duplicated Selection/Reselectionselection/reselection for camping cells on which cell Has Been Performedbefore a cell to which a connection selection/reselection has iscurrently being attempted in a been performed valid time section ofmobility history information

Among the parameters shown in Table 1, parameters that can be set to ms,sf, rf, s, m, h, etc. may be set to times in the corresponding units, orexpressed as predetermined time ranges or so on.

For example, the parameters that can be set in time units may beexpressed as {0.5 m, 1 m, 5 m, 10 m}, or time units and time ranges maybe set in advance as shown in Table 2, and parameter values indicatingthe respective set time rages may be expressed as different bits.

TABLE 2 Parameter Value Time Range Unit 00 0 to 30 S 01 30 to 60  10 60to 300 11 300 to 6000

A terminal may selectively configure mobility history information on theterminal from among the parameters shown in Table 1 and Table 2according to a mobility state (e.g., MSE) of the terminal estimated bythe terminal itself, and report the mobility history information.

For example, a terminal may be configured to report current cellinformation (ID or stay time), previous camping cell information (ID orstay time), etc. when it is determined that MSE information or mobilitystate information generated in various ways is included in apredetermined range of a low speed.

Alternatively, a terminal may be configured to report information(number and IDs) on cells in which the terminal has camped in apredetermined time section (e.g., valid time of mobility historyinformation), the number of cells on which cell selection/reselectionhas been performed, ID information on the corresponding cells, validtime of mobility history information, etc. when it is determined that amobility state is included in a predetermined range of a high speed.

To efficiently manage terminals in the connected state in a HetNetenvironment, a terminal may be configured to receive service from a cellhaving a macro layer service area (or a cell having a micro layerservice area) or receive service from a plurality of cells using theCoMP function in consideration of the number of cells that the terminalhas passed through in an arbitrary time, the number of times ofhandover, the number of times of ping-pong handover, ping-pong handovercell information (IDs or the number of times of duplication), cell staytime (a stay time per cell or an average stay time), the number of timesof handover between macro and micro layers or the number of cellchanges, and so on.

Here, a base station may be configured to estimate the parameters, suchas the number of cells that the terminal has passed through in apredetermined time, the number of times of handover, the number of timesof ping-pong handover, the ping-pong handover cell information (IDs orthe number of times of duplication), cell stay time (a stay time percell or an average stay time), the number of times of handover betweenmacro and micro layers or the number of cell changes, or the terminalmay be configured to report the parameters to the corresponding basestation using its own stored information.

In particular, when the number of cells that a terminal has passedthrough in the predetermined time or the number of times of handover isgreater than a predetermined reference value (or threshold value) of thecorresponding parameter, or a cell stay time (a stay time per cell or anaverage stay time) is less than a predetermined reference value (orthreshold value) of the corresponding parameter, the terminal mayreceive service from a macro layer cell.

On the other hand, when the number of times of ping-pong handoverperformed by a terminal in a predetermined time is greater than apredetermined reference value (or threshold value) of the correspondingparameter, or a cell stay time (a stay time per cell or an average staytime) is greater than a predetermined reference value (or thresholdvalue) of the corresponding parameter, the terminal may receive servicefrom a micro cell or receive service from a plurality of cells using theCoMP function.

FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram illustrating mobility management of aterminal in consideration of a small cell in a HetNet environment in amethod of managing a terminal according to example embodiments of thepresent invention.

Referring to FIG. 9, when a plurality of macro cells 910 and a pluralityof micro cells 930 have different frequencies in a HetNet environmentincluding the macro cells 910 and the micro cells 930, mobilitymanagement efficiency for a terminal can be improved by reducing as manyRRM measurement operations as possible.

In other words, when the macro cells 910 using a first frequency and themicro cells 930 using a second frequency constitute the same frequencydomain, if a terminal has no transmission or reception data in theconnected state, or is performing the DRX operation in the connectedstate, the terminal may not trigger or perform a handover procedureevery time a cell is changed but may perform a handover procedure onlywhen the terminal leaves a predetermined area according to the conceptof the “log-in” state described above, or may measure only a frequencyof a serving cell for RRM measurement without measuring other frequencyresources. Here, the predetermined area may denote a geographical area,such as the inside of a building 950 or a school/large shopping mall 950in which a small cell is installed, or an arbitrary area predeterminedfor managing a routing area, a tracking area, a local area, and so on.

Also, the macro cells 910 and the micro cells 930 may provide serviceaccording to the concept of a cloud base station 900.

Thus, a terminal according to example embodiments of the presentinvention can minimize its power consumption by measuring only afrequency of a layer of a cell with which the terminal is maintaining aconnection, and reduce overload of a system by infrequently performing ahandover procedure.

In addition, an Scell (e.g., a new carrier type) having only a downlinkfrequency in a base station environment supporting the CA function maybe managed in a mode (off mode) in which downlink transmission of theScell is stopped for a low-power consumption operation of a basestation, and a mode (on mode) in which data is transmitted over adownlink of the Scell. In other words, an Scell may be managed in a stopmode (off mode) operation in which a base station does not transmit anysignal over a downlink except for minimum downlink signals for measuringthe Scell operating in the off mode when there is no terminal connectingto the corresponding cell and receiving service, and a transmission mode(on mode) operation in which there is a terminal that is receivingservice via the corresponding cell or in need of service, and the Scelltransmits control information and traffic information necessary forproviding service over a downlink.

Minimum downlink signals transmitted in the stop mode to measure anScell may be on the assumption of a synchronization channel or anadditionally defined probing channel. These signals may occupy discreteradio resources in the time domain and the frequency domain, and may bediscontinuously transmitted according to a discontinuous transmission(DTX) operation period of the corresponding cell cell.

Meanwhile, to efficiently perform mobility management in a HetNetenvironment consisting of macro base stations and micro base stations, anetwork may control a terminal to maintain a connection to only a basestation belonging to a specific layer between a macro base station layeror a micro base station layer, but may also establish connections with aplurality of base stations belonging to two layers so that a terminalcan maintain the connections and receive service. For example, this is acase of FIG. 1 in which the terminal 153 maintains all connections withthe macro base station 110 and a micro base station 120 to receiveservice.

Mobility management may be performed for a terminal that maintains allconnections with a macro base station and a micro base station asmentioned above so that handover is not performed due to movementbetween micro base stations even when the terminal moves between serviceareas of the micro base stations in a macro base station. For example,this is a case of FIG. 1 in which the terminal 153 maintaining allconnections with the macro base station 110 and the micro base station120 moves from the area of the micro base station 120 to the area ofanother adjacent micro base station 120. In this case, a handoverprocedure is performed only when a macro base station is changed, andmay be performed using a connection re-establishment procedure when amicro base station is changed.

Thus, it is possible to use a method in which a macro base stationhandles a control plane such as mobility management and RRC connectioncontrol for the corresponding terminal, and a micro base station handlesa user plane such as traffic data transmission of the terminal, so thatthe macro base station and the micro base station handle the controlplane and the user plane respectively. In this way, when an arbitraryterminal maintains all connections with a macro base station and a microbase station (referred to as “plural connections” below), the macro basestation can also handle traffic data transmission of the user plane. Inparticular, it is possible to control a macro base station to transmitdata of a voice service, such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), orservice in which quality of service (QoS) needs to be ensured, andreal-time services.

Plural connections may be established in a procedure in which a terminalestablishes a connection with an arbitrary base station or while aterminal has already been maintaining a connection with an arbitrarybase station, and at this time, the base station may make adetermination according to a capability of the terminal, characteristicsof a connection service (e.g., jitter variance and latency), attributesof a backhaul between the terminal and the base station, and a loadstatus of the base station. Also, a plural connection system maydetermine a base station having a priority for supporting pluralconnections between a macro base station and a micro base station. Thedetermined priority base station (e.g., Pcell or anchor cell) mayleadingly perform a control procedure for establishing pluralconnections. Thus, the priority base station may instruct a terminal toestablish plural connections through a connection establishment orre-establishment message, and forward information, such as radioresources necessary at this time, an ID of the priority base station, ascheduling ID, and a ciphering key, to the terminal. In case of need,the system may forward a plural connection request message forconfirming the necessity of plural connections or checking whether ornot the terminal agrees on plural connections to the terminal. When theterminal registers in a network or establishes a connection, theterminal may report capability information indicating whether or notplural connections are possible, or transmit plural connectionactivation/deactivation information indicating whether or not pluralconnections are necessary. Thus, even if a terminal is capable of pluralconnections, the system may be configured neither to transmitinformation indicating deactivation of plural connections nor to attempta plural connection procedure on the terminal when the terminal hastransmitted or set information indicating deactivation of pluralconnections.

When the plural connection function is used, base stations supportingplural connections may use the same scheduling ID and ciphering key forthe corresponding terminal. To use the same ciphering key, a cipheringkey (e.g., an eNB key (KeNB)) of a base station having a prioritybetween a macro base station and a micro base station may be shared withthe other base station participating in the plural connections, and aciphering procedure such as ciphering and integrity check of theterminal may be performed.

Thus, when a macro base station has a priority, the macro base stationmay forward packet data (e.g., a PDCP PDU) on which a ciphering processhas been performed to a micro base station using a connection(interface) between the base stations and transmit the packet data tothe corresponding terminal using an RLC/MAC/physical (PHY) layer of themicro base station, or the macro base station may notify the micro basestation of a ciphering key using a signaling message, and the micro basestation may transmit the packet data to the terminal by performing aPDCP/RLC/MAC/PHY process using the ciphering key of the macro basestation rather than a ciphering key of the micro base station. On theother hand, when a micro base station has a priority, the micro basestation performs the above procedure using a ciphering key. Thus, evenwhen a terminal maintains all connections with a macro base station anda micro base station, it is possible to transmit and receive data usingone ciphering key.

As described above, even when a terminal maintains all connections witha macro base station and a micro base station, it is possible to set thesame scheduling ID to be shared in order to lower the complexity withwhich the terminal detects a scheduling ID in a physical control channel(e.g., PDCCH or enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH)). For example, all base stations(or cells) with which connections are maintained may be set to use thesame scheduling ID as a scheduling ID (e.g., semi-persistent scheduling(SPS) C-RNTI) for an SPS service and a scheduling ID for a dynamicscheduling service. To this end, scheduling IDs (e.g., a C-RNTI, a SPSC-RNTI, a transmit power control (TPC)-PUCCH-RNTI, and a TPC-physicaluplink shared channel (PUSCH)-RNTI) may be assigned to the correspondingterminal using a control message of a procedure in which a macro basestation and a micro base station establish connections at the same time.Alternatively, a scheduling ID assigned by a (macro or micro) basestation that has established a connection first may be used.Alternatively, a C-RNTI may be additionally assigned by each basestation, and the same SPS C-RNTI may be used. In this case, the terminalis assigned a plurality of C-RNTIs and the one SPS C-RNTI to operate. Inother words, the terminal receives the SPS service using the one SPSC-RNTI that is the same scheduling ID assigned by the plurality of basestations or one base station, and receives services that require dynamicassignment of other packet data, a control message, etc. using theplurality of C-RNTIs that are assigned scheduling IDs. That is,respective base stations connected for plural connections may beassigned different C-RNTIs and managed. For example, when a terminal isconnected to two base stations, one of two C-RNTIs that have beenassigned by the respective base stations is a scheduling ID used for amacro base station to uniquely identify the terminal, and the other is ascheduling ID used for a micro base station to uniquely identify theterminal.

A macro base station and a micro base station supporting pluralconnections need to forward their allocation information on radioresources, for example, CSI, a CSI-RS, a DM-RS, a UE-specific RS, asounding RS (SRS), and a PUCCH, to a base station having a priority atleast every time plural connections are established. The respective basestations need to assign the radio resources (CSI, a CSI-RS, a DM-RS, aUE-specific RS, an SRS, and a PUCCH) to support a terminal that receivesservice using a connection with the macro base station or the micro basestation only without plural connections, and thus need to forward radioresource allocation information to a base station (e.g., a Pcell or ananchor cell) having a priority so as to avoid collision when radioresources related to plural connections are allocated to support theplural connections.

To support the above-described plural connections such as inter-site CAof maintaining all connections with a macro base station and a microbase station and receiving service, the RRC function of handlingconnection control may be wholly handled by a base station (Pcell oranchor cell) having a priority, or shared by the respective basestations.

Thus, there is a necessity for a procedure of setting a base stationhaving a priority between base stations in a process of establishingplural connections. At this time, radio resources such as CSI, a CSI-RS,a DM-RS, a UE-specific RS, an SRS and a PUCCH for the correspondingterminal and control information such as an SPS C-RNTI, a C-RNTI and aciphering key may be signaled as a control message between the basestations, and the terminal may be notified of the radio resources andthe control information using a control message in a connectionre-establishment procedure.

In addition, when plural connections are closed, and only one basestation maintains a connection, the corresponding terminal is notifiedof release information for resources that are repeatedly allocated forthe plural connections or a plurality of resources allocated for theplural connections (e.g., two assigned C-RNTIs or PUCCH resourcesallocated to respective base stations) or allocation information for asingle connection using a control message.

In other words, when release information is received, the terminalreleases the corresponding resources, and when the allocationinformation for a single connection is received, the terminal ignoresresources allocated for the plural connections and maintains the singleconnection using radio resources or a scheduling ID allocated throughthe control message for the single connection.

When service is provided while plural connections are maintained asdescribed above, an HARQ operation may be performed in the followingprocedure. To support HARQ of downlink transmission data from a basestation to a terminal, respective base stations may separately allocatePUCCH resources to the terminal and separately perform the HARQoperation, or one base station may allocate PUCCH resources for all thebase stations and perform the HARQ operation.

On the other hand, to support HARQ of uplink transmission data from aterminal to a base station, one base station may transmit a physicalHARQ indicator channel (PHICH) and perform the HARQ operation.

According to a method of managing a terminal in a HetNet environment asdescribed above, it is possible to improve a measurement operation andDRX operation control procedure necessary for connection control betweenone or more base stations and a terminal in a HetNet environmentsupporting CA and a CoMP function in which a plurality of base stationscooperate to provide service, and thereby performance of a system can beimproved.

In addition, by providing a control procedure for mobility managementand low-power operation of terminals in a network environment thatprovides service to an MTC terminal, a D2D terminal, and terminalsgenerating traffic having a variety of profiles, it is possible toincrease a transmission rate of a mobile communication system, improveinterference control or interference avoidance performance, ensurecontinuity of the service, and reduce power consumption of theterminals.

While the example embodiments of the present invention and theiradvantages have been described in detail, it should be understood thatvarious changes, substitutions and alterations may be made hereinwithout departing from the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. An operation method of a user equipment (UE), theoperation method comprising: receiving a first information about a firstphysical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource for a master basestation and a second information about a second PUCCH resource for asecondary base station; transmitting a first control information throughthe first PUCCH resource to the master base station; and transmitting asecond control information through the second PUCCH resource to thesecondary base station, wherein the UE supports dual connection with themaster base station and the secondary base station.
 2. The operationmethod of claim 1, wherein the master base station performs a control ofthe dual connection.
 3. The operation method of claim 1, wherein the UEoperates in a radio resource control (RRC)_CONNECTED state.
 4. Theoperation method of claim 1, wherein the second information is receivedfrom the secondary base station via the master base station.
 5. Anoperation method of a user equipment (UE), the operation methodcomprising: receiving two cell-radio network temporary identifiers(C-RNTIs), wherein one of the two C-RNTIs is a C-RNTI for a cell of amaster base station and the other C-RNTI is a C-RNTI for a cell of asecondary base station; receiving a first message from the master basestation using the C-RNTI for the cell of the master base station; andreceiving a second message from the secondary base station using theC-RNTI for the cell of the secondary base station, wherein the UEsupports dual connection with the master base station and the secondarybase station.
 6. The operation method of claim 5, wherein the UEoperates in a radio resource control (RRC)_CONNECTED state.
 7. Theoperation method of claim 5, wherein the C-RNTI for the cell of themaster base station is received from the master base station, and theC-RNTI for the cell of the secondary base station is received from thesecondary base station via the master base station.
 8. An operationmethod of a master base station, the operation method comprising:receiving a configuration information for a secondary base station fromthe secondary base station; and transferring the configurationinformation to a user equipment (UE), wherein the master base stationand the secondary base station provide dual connection to the UE.
 9. Theoperation method of claim 8, wherein the configuration informationincludes a radio resource configuration information of the secondarybase station.
 10. The operation method of claim 8, wherein theconfiguration information includes a physical uplink control channel(PUCCH) configuration information of the secondary base station.
 11. Theoperation method of claim 8, wherein the configuration informationincludes a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configuration information ofthe secondary base station.
 12. The operation method of claim 8, whereinthe configuration information includes an identifier of the secondarybase station.
 13. The operation method of claim 8, wherein theconfiguration information includes a cell-radio network temporaryidentifier (C-RNTI) allocated for the UE by the secondary base station.